The Walking Dead: Season One
by seniorcopycat
Summary: A novelization of the first season TellTale's The Walking Dead video game, based on the choices I made throughout the game. Does not include swearing and instead uses pseudo profanity, still rated T for violence though.
1. A New Day

**The Walking Dead: Season One**

**Episode 1: A New Day**

**Chapter 1**

Today was just not going so well for Lee Everett.

There was, handcuffed in the backseat of a Police Car taking him to some prison far away from Atlanta for he was going to stay probably for the rest of his natural life. It was amazing how quickly things could go from bad to total sucksville. The whole thing had been pretty much a blur to Lee, so much so that he barely even remembered why he was even in there, though he definitely felt regretful about it and knew that he deserved what was coming to him.

The first ten minutes of the ride were spent in silence and awkward glances between him the old police officer, who was possibly in his mid fifties and looked to be about fifty-five, driving through the rear mirror.

Then, the officer driving the vehicle decided to get a little chatty.

"Well, I reckon you didn't do it then," he said.

Lee was a bit surprised by this. "Why do you say that?" he asked.

"Y'know I've driven a buncha' fella's down to this prison. Lord knows how many. Usually is 'bout now I get the "_I didn't do it.__" The Atlanta Police Officer said._

_"Every time?" Lee inquired, interested._

_"Every time." The man echoed, in confirmation. _He stopped talking, possibly gathering his thoughts.

The radio in the front was saying something, so Lee leaned in closer to hear.

_"__We've got what looks like a 10-91E near Peachtree Exit of 285. All cars asked to keep on the lookout for a 91V in the area.__"_Lee wasn't a cop, so he didn't really understand the terms but whatever they were saying didn't sound too good. Then, the officer interrupted his thoughts again.

"I followed your case a little bit, you being a Macon boy and all."

"You're from Macon then." Lee said, both surprised and interested.

"Yep. Came up to Atlanta to be a city cop in the seventies." The officer explained, "Always wanted to work a murder case, like that senatorial mess you got yourself mixed up in, with all due respect. A real shame that is."

Lee was only half-paying attention; he looked out the window and saw a police car zoom by in the opposite direction, towards Atlanta. He watched it zoom by with a raised brow.

The officer continued, "Hell, the whole family used to be regulars at your folks' drugstore right in downtown. Still there?"

"Sure is." Lee smiled with a nod, as he thought about his family.

"Good."

The radio sounded again, _"__Be advised of medical personnel on route to Hartsfield, various 10's and 20's coming in.__"_

Lee was confused as to why the officer didn't seem to pay much attention to what was being said on the radio. He curiously glanced at the radio and then the officer's obviously indifferent expression and decided to ask him about it.

"Any of that seem important to you?" Lee wondered.

"All of it, but that box never shuts up. Sit in this seat and pay too much attention and you'll drive yourself crazy." The Atlanta Police Officer reasoned. Lee shrugged, he made a fair point. "I got a nephew up at UGA, you teach there long?"

"Going on my sixth year." Lee answered. He was a history professor there.

"You meet your wife in Athens?" he pressed.

Ouch. That last question, instantly lowered Lee's spirits for felt a bit uncomfortable talking about his wife, and remained silent and looked out the window. More police cars and an ambulance drove by.

"You wanna know how I see it?"

"…Not really." Lee solemnly replied, shaking his head as he watched them drive by.

"Well too bad, it's my car. You might have the right to remain silent, but it don't mean I gotta be."

The officer opened his mouth to speak but as soon as he saw the serious and stern look on Lee's face he decided against saying whatever it was he was going to say.

The officer instead chose to say something else, "Regardless, could be you just married the _wrong woman_."

This mad Lee a bit angry, since the way he saw it his wife had chosen the _wrong guy_. He wanted to say something, he wanted to pin the blame on himself but given his situation he knew it wouldn't mean much, that it would be pointless and let out a long grumpy sigh.

The radio once again sounded, _"__Riot in progress. All officers are available for incoming 217's. Rolling calls and dispatches to all locations.__"_

_The officer noticed Lee nervously looking at the radio and spoke. "You'll have to learn to stop worrying about things you can't control," he said, then a _helicopter and tons of police cars rushed by as the officer answered. While he did agree with the officer's statement to a degree the strange amount of police and such, determined to get to Atlanta as fast as possible was very unusual and just made him more nervous. _What's going on back in Atlanta? _Lee thought to himself. The police officer started talking again.

"I'm driving this man once; h-he was the worst one. He wouldn't stop going on about how he didn't do it." The officer spoke, launching himself yet again into another long story, "He was an older fella. Big, soft eyes behind a pair of smart folk glasses, and he's just wailing back there, says it wasn't him. Crying and snotting all over, right where you're sitting." The officer told him, which disgusted Lee a wee bit.

The radio blared again, interrupting and annoying the officer. He reached over and turned the thing off mid-speech. Then he continued.

"Then before long he starts kicking the back of the seat, li-like a fussy baby on an airplane. And I tell him he's gotta stop, that that's government property, and I'll been forced to zap him otherwise," he ranted. "So he stops, and having exhausted all his options, he starts crying out for his mama. _"Mama, it's all a big mistake! It wasn't me!__"_

_While this story was very boring it did pique Lee's interest a bit. "So did he so it?" he asked curiously._

_The officer nodded. "They caught the scumbag red handed! Stabbin' his wife, cutting her up as the boys came through the door! He _sits in my car screaming bloody murder that it wasn't him! I think he actually believed it himself. It goes to show, people will up and go mad when they believe their life is over."

Yet another statement that Lee could get behind. Who know? Maybe the next person that goes 'mad' will be him as soon as he gets to prison.

"Oh I got another good one for ya." The driver chuckled to himself, looking over his shoulder at Lee. He continued talking. "This one's a little bit less depressing and a bit more hilarious if I do say so myself…"

Lee suddenly noticed something far off in the distance, he squinted his eyes and looked up ahead at the unwatched road. He saw a person dressed in dirty rags slowly shambling themselves across the road. Right into the car's view. Before he knew the words were coming out of his mouth, he yelled, "Watch out!" But it was too late, the car hit the person and was sent off course, taking out a road rail and into a ditch. The car rolled and flipped several times, sending bits and pieces flying and knocking Lee out cold. His whole world went black.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Lee went in and out of consciousness. There was a sharp yell and loud moaning and groaning that went in one ear and out the other. There were also loud booms, they sounded like gun shots. The noises sounded like ones you might hear if your head was held underwater; incoherent, and muffled. Lee continued to hear more frantic shouts. Through half-closed eyes, he thought he saw a dark figure slowly making its way closer to the car. Then, everything went dark, for quite a while too. When Lee opened his eyes again, the dark figure was no longer there and the sky seemed a bit darker. There were still screams and loud panting that pierced Lee's ears. There were loud thumps, like there was a large scuffle going on outside and it didn't sound good. Suddenly the yelling decreased and went silent and Lee once again succumbed to the heavy weight of his eyelids.

Lee finally awoke, groaning. He sat up, wincing. He began fumbling with his hands, more specifically, with the handcuffs on his hands.

"…Thirsty," Lee said out loud, realizing how dry his throat was. How long had he been out?

Lee shifted again, grunting as a sharp pang of pain suddenly shot through his right leg. He looked down and saw that his leg was greatly injured, probably because of the long ride down the ditch.

"Drat, my leg…" he said, in dismay and with a slight groan.

Lee looked around, the car was pretty crunched up after the fall and he doubted he could get out through the side door. He looked to his right, where there was a shattered glass window. Through it, he could see the police officer's body lying on his stomach in an awkward position with blood trailing behind.

"Hey! Hey officer! Are you all right?! I'm still cuffed back here!" Lee shouted in the general direction of the cop. There was no answer. "Officer!? Oh, that doesn't look good… he wasn't ejected from the car…"

Then he noticed the abandoned shotgun not too far from the cop's body. "Why the hell did he have his gun out?" he wondered to himself.

Lee looked around for a way out of the car, when he spotted the window next to him. He raised his left leg and began to repeatedly kick it, grunting as he did it. The window wasn't too much of a challenge; it only took four hits for the glass to shatter. He made his way closer to the window. He positioned his forearms on the base of the window and grunted as he slowly pulled himself up and through the small side window. It wasn't the best of landings, as Lee crashed onto the sloping ground on his side with a grunt. Lee looked up; it was quite a fall that the car had taken. There'd be no way he'd be able to climb it with his injured leg.

He got up and leaned over the side of the car, shouting out in pain as he shifted his weight onto his hurt leg, which seemed to be getting worse as he turn a bone crack and blood squirt a bit. Lee slowly, but surely limped around the police car by leaning on it. After that, he looked over to the officer and began to make his way towards him, ignoring the shotgun and shell that were laying nearby since he figured that he didn't have much use for them and he didn't want to get into even more trouble then he already was. Not to mention that an officer was down and he wanted to make sure he was ok.

"Officer?" he said, concerned for the old man's wellbeing. Lee walked closer to him, seeing just how bad a shape he was in. "_God dang…"_

As Lee hovered over the man's body, he noticed keys in the back pocket of his pants and reached for them. He then attempted to unlock his restraints, seeing as they were getting on his nerves a bit. He wasn't known for being very good with his hands though, so the keys slipped out of his hands and dropped with a light clang near the officer's face.

"Shoot!" he grunted in dismay.

Lee slowly bent over the man's head and quickly grabbed the keys. Making sure not to drop them again, he carefully unlocked each cuff, where they were discarded onto the soft ground. Finally, he was free of his restraints.

After rubbing his sore wrists a sudden moaning from below him attracted his attention. The officer's hand twitched slightly. Was he alive after all?

"Uh, officer?..." Lee worried. All of a sudden, the officer jumped up and tried to attack Lee. This sudden moment made Lee cry out and all onto the ground.

"Ahhhh! Holy crud!" Lee yelled, as the being got up on its arms and began to snarl sickeningly and crawl at the ground towards him.

Lee was terrified, he quickly backed up from _thing. _What the hell was this thing? He continued to frantically back up until his back collided with the side of the police car. He then noticed the fallen shell and turned to the creature.

"Get away from me!" Lee screamed at the monster, but it didn't seem to listen, it just kept on coming. Lee then remembered the shotgun on the other side of him and grasped it. He retrieved the shell from his pants pocket with shaky fingers.

"What the hell are you?" Lee half questioned, half-screamed to the thing that continued to crawl towards him. Unfortunately, in the heat of the moment, the shell slipped from his fingers and hit the ground as he tried to put it in the shotgun.

"SHOOT!" he griped, reaching for the shell with no time to lose. He popped the shell into the shotgun and took aim at the monster that was getting too close-for-comfort.

"Don't make me do this…!" he yelled in a panicked tone, staring in horror at the monster. His words weren't getting through to it, as it continued to crawl at the ground hungrily. Lee reluctantly pulled the trigger, sending the round directly into the former police officer's head, destroying pretty much 80% of it and splaying blood and brains all over. The officer's body hit the ground, its arms continued to move for a second, which made Lee point the gun at him again, before all movement from the monster finally ceased. Blood continued to pour from it.

Lee gasped, breathing heavily, still holding the shotgun in his hands. He stared in disbelief at the weapon in his hand, shocked by what he did. He shook his head and threw the empty thing away from him. He had killed before, but…this was different. He didn't like to kill, in fact he'd pretty much kill himself if he did but in this case, it was for self-defense so no one could really blame him.

"…man." He said, trying to calm himself down.

He pulled his eyes back to the officer's bloody body and took a closer look at it. "His skin's all rotten… and he smells like shit. What the hell _is_ this?" Lee quietly whispered to himself. Lee kept telling himself over and over in his head that this… _this_ did _not_ just happened. It did not. I did not. It did not. It couldn't have… it-it… it couldn't have… but it did. In the face of every sane thing that came before it and all that he had come to know and expect about the world… it did.

Lee looked around at his surroundings to see where exactly he was. From the looks of things he was in a large forest with several rocks scattered about the place. The land was very sloppy. Then he quickly spotted a mysterious figure at the top of one of the hills in front of hm. The figure looked like a little girl and she was looking around. Probably hearing the gunshot that he had fired. He called out to her, waving his arms around wildly.

"HELP! Go get someone! There- there's been a shooting!" he cried.

The girl seemed to take notice, but quickly ran off in the opposite direction, disappearing behind the large hills.

Suddenly, Lee heard noises, there were faint moans and groans in the distance, and he heard rustling from behind him. He looked for the source and saw two more of those _things_ emerge from behind a tree. Lee had no time to waste; he quickly pulled himself up onto two feet, grunting in pain as he moved his injured leg and began to escape their gaining pursuit. Suddenly, he was falling; he had tripped over the police officer's corpse. He mentally slapped himself quickly regained his stance and once again began to limp away from the terrifying beings. He looked to his side, gasping silently; there were even more of these monsters!

Lee limped even faster when he heard a snarling to his right, there was an arm-less monster leaning up against a tree that weakly tried to reach for him. He kept walking, when he tripped again. The monsters were close to surrounding him, so Lee frantically began to crawl away from them. He finally reached the top of the hill when he saw a bright orange-brown fence that was covered in plant growth. It was the only hope he had to get away.

Having no time to waste, Lee got to his feet once more. He could hear the snarling, the moaning, and the groaning from all directions. Lee carefully but quickly limped his way to the fence, looking behind him more than once. When Lee finally reached the fence, he gripped the top of it and pulled himself over it, ignoring the pain from his leg. Once again he landed poorly, right on his bum. He quickly recovered though and backed up. His eyes were wide with fear and shock. Lee could still hear the monsters from over the fence. They pushed up against the fence and attempted to break through it. Lee could hear the loud thumps and bumps of their arms and hands against the fence. Lee kept backing up in fear until his back connected with the side of the patio, he pressed up against it. The fence looked and sounded like it was going to fall any second.

Suddenly there was a loud banging from shots of a gun far off into the distance that attracted Lee's attention, as well as the creatures. He wondered who was Luckily, it also attracted the monsters' attention and they ceased their pounding and walked off, on the trail of another victim. Lee sighed in relief and got up onto his feet. He looked around; it seemed that he was in the backyard of somebody's house, judging by the pool, tree house, and other toys.

"Hello? Anybody?" Lee yelled, as large streams of smoke sifted through the sky from the city of Atlanta. Le had absolutely no idea what was going on but he knew it was far from over… going to prison would have to wait for a while…


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

After receiving no response, Lee began to explore the backyard he was in. He spotted a mini-cute tea set near the base of a large tree with a tree house on top. There was a red chair to the left of the tea-set and on the opposite side; a tire swing that was slightly swaying from right to left. In addition, there was a red wagon; it looked like it had been untouched for days. He looked up towards the tree house and wondered if someone was up there.

"Anybody up there?" he called out. After he once again received no answer Lee then noticed the door to the house nearby. "I wonder if anybody's home?"

Turning his attention away from the toys, Lee started to head to the glass sliding door. Lee reached the patio steps and climbed up onto the porch. There was a green hose perched on the wall and a quaint table and chair shaded by a bright red umbrella.

"Hello? Anybody home? I need a little help." Lee called, knocking a few times on the reflective material. Nobody came to answer the door.

"Hellooo." He exclaimed, trying once more. But to no avail, the door remained unanswered. "There's something going on…"

Lee waited for a little bit, hoping someone would come to the door but he soon got impatient.

"Screw it. Just gonna go in," he declared.

Lee tugged on the door handle, using both hands to pry the door open. "Coming in. Don't shoot, ok?" He urged. He took a quick glance behind him, concluding that there wasn't anything else to see out there; before stepping in.

Being the polite man he was, Lee closed the door behind him. The house was dimly lit by the sunlight pouring in from the outside and the TV which showed an absent blue screen. Suddenly, he felt a wave of pain coming from his leg.

"Ahhhh, shoot. Hello?" Lee gasped as he walked further into the house, "I'm not an intruder… or one of THEM."

Lee looked around the room looked like a tornado had swept through the room. Furniture was toppled over and there was a large blood stain in the kitchen.

"These people might need more help than I do." Lee commented, worry distinct on his face.

He strode towards a table to the right of him. On top of the counter was a small coloring book, flipped open to an unfinished coloring of a happy unicorn. He guessed a little girl must be living here or… _had_ lived here. Lee made his way past table, opposite the first one. There was a bowl of fruit on it.

Lee then noticed a large blood stain on the kitchen floor. "Jesus…" he breathed. He was beginning to think that he didn't even want to _know_ what happened here.

The situation in the kitchen was even worse than in the living room. Everything of value seemed to have been ransacked and dishes were on the floor. There were even small bloody hand prints that made a pathway to the drawers. Lee spotted a glass of water near the sink and decided to make his way toward it.

But as soon as he took one step onto the large blood stain he slipped and fell right onto his side. He groaned a bit as he picked himself back up, but his shirt and pants were now covered in blood stains. Lee proceeded to the glass of water, grabbed it and drank all the water that was inside, he didn't even care if it was dirty or not, he was just so darn thirty he could drink pretty much anything. He placed it back down after he was done.

"Ah…" he breathed, in relief.

Lee then decided to search the cabinets for anything useful. He opened a drawer below the sink. Nothing. He opened a small drawer which contained long boxes. Nothing, again. He then pulled open the larger drawer to the right of it. Inside were some papers and a walkie-talkie. Lee reached for the talkie, looking side to side. He placed it in his pocket for safe keeping, who knows? Could turn out of be handy.

Lee then resumed opening every cupboard in the kitchen, but they all had the same result; nothing. He then noticed a note on the fridge.

"Hmm… The Marsh House. That's a Savannah area-code. But _that's_ the type of note you'd leave a baby sitter…" Lee mused. So if there was a baby sitter in the house, where was he or she? More importantly where's the kid they're looking after? Then suddenly there was a loud beep from a nearby source. He rotated his head in its direction.

He made his way out of the kitchen and walked over to a blinking red light in the middle of a dark room. The sound had come from an answering machine.

"Maybe there's something on there." Lee declared, pressing the messages button on it. It was a woman's voice who sounded like she was in her early thirties, more specifically thirty-three, and she was talking on the messages.

_Three new messages.__Message one. Left at five-forty-three p.m._

_**Hey, Sandra, this is Diana. We're still in Savannah. Ed had a little 'incident' with some crazy guy near the hotel, so we had to get him back to the ER and have it checked out. Anyway, he's not feeling well enough to drive back tonight, so we're staying an extra day. Thanks so much for looking after Clementine, and I promise we'll be back in time before your spring break!**_

_Message two. Left at eleven-nine-teen p.m._

_**Oh my God, finally! I don't know if you've tried to reach us; all the calls are getting dropped. They're not letting us leave and aren't telling us anything about Atlanta. Please, please, just leave the city and take Clementine with you back to Marietta. I've got to get back to the hospital. Please let me know that you're safe.**_

_Message three. Left at six-fifty-one a.m._

_**Clementine? Baby, if you can hear this, call the police. That's 9-1-1. We love you… we love you… we love y-**_

Lee picked up a picture frame of the family who apparently owned the house. It depicted three people; a smiling man and woman with their little girl. He gazed at it sadly and put the photo back down. What sort of _horrors_ did this family go through? Were they all dead or...worse? And was the little girl still in the house? Lee hoped so.

Suddenly, Lee heard a little girl's voice come out of nowhere. "Daddy?"

"Huh?" Lee wondered. He then realized it was coming from the walkie talkie he grabbed earlier.

He walked towards the glass sliding door. "…Hello?" he spoke through the communicating device.

A young girl on the other end of the radio cautiously warned him. "You need to be quiet."

Lee quickly backed away from the doors, that was good advice. Considering. Still he was very curious as to who was on the other end of the walkie talkie. Was it the little girl he saw in the picture or somebody else?

Lee then began pacing about. "Who is this?" he asked, as he looked under the table briefly.

"I'm Clementine. This is my house." The little girl said.

"Hi, Clementine. I'm Lee," he smiled.

"You're not my Daddy." Clementine.

Lee's smile faded. "No, I'm not."

Lee's pacing then brought him to the living room, where he began inspecting places for someone to hide or perhaps where the babysitter, Sandra, was.

"How old are you?" Lee wondered.

"Eight." Clementine replied.

"And your all alone?" Lee asked, her both concerned and surprised. What did this little girl have to go through at her age?

"Yes." Clementine stated, the fear in her voice was obvious. "I don't know where anybody is. How old are you?"

"I'm uh… thirty-seven." Lee answered.

"Ok." Clementine said, she seemed calmer now.

"Where are your parents?" he inquired, as he continued to pace towards the kitchen, carefully avoiding the blood spill.

"They took a trip and left me with Sandra. They're in Savannah I think. Where the boats are."

"Where are you?" Lee questioned, standing next to the kitchen window. He was beginning to grow worried not knowing where she was, not to mention very curious and confused.

"I'm outside in my tree house. They can't get in." the girl explained, instinctively causing Lee to look out the window and into the tree house.

"That's smart." Lee approved.

"See?" The girl indicated, peeking through a small door. Lee could make out a young girl with a small cap speaking through her talkie. "Can you see me? I can see you through the window."

Lee waved at the girl in the tree house with a friendly smile, happy to see someone who wasn't a monster.

"AHHHH!" The girl suddenly shrieked, once again taking refuge in her makeshift base. Lee reflexively turned around. He turned at the right moment too; because right at that moment, a repulsive monster attempted to attack him from behind, snarling with hunger. At that moment Lee quickly figured out what happened to the babysitter known as Sandra. Lee shouted, grabbing the thing's shoulders and struggling to push it away from him. The monster thrashed and growled, flailing its arms about, trying to reach him. Lee slowly pushed it away from him and into the front of the stove where it hit the ground. He quickly caught his breath and turned to escape the monster which recovered quickly. He forgot about the blood though, and he slipped, nailing his head on the counter.

His vision became blurry and it became hard for him to make out certain shapes. He saw something coming closer to him so he kicked it hard. It was the monster, luckily. Struggling to his feet, Lee once again quickly dashed towards the door. Suddenly the thing's hands gripped tight onto his ankle, causing him to trip once more. It was about to bite his legs when Lee punched it in the face away. He frantically backed up away from the thing; which was quickly catching up. The monster grabbed his foot and pulled him closer, climbing on top of Lee. He fought back and shoved it away from him. It was as if pain didn't affect the monster, as it recovered quickly with a disturbing snarl. It continued its pursuit towards Lee and Lee continued to kick back the thing several times. That's when he noticed that the girl had climbed out of her tree house, opened the door and was now standing behind him; offering him a hammer.

"Here!" she said, terrified of the monster that was approaching.

He took it from her hands and held back the monster, preventing it from having its way with him.

him.

Lee swung his hammer at the monster's face, flinging it sideways. With no time to waste, he braced his injured knee against the monster's torso. He held the hammer firmly in his hand as he struck the beast in the head, making it bleed a bit but not strong enough to kill it. He then hammered it again, but it still showed signs of whatever life it had inside of it so Lee hammered it a third time. It finally seemed dead, but Lee didn't want to risk it. The hammer impacted the monster's brain for a fourth time, its end temporarily getting stuck in its cranium as he struggled to pull it out. Finally, it was dead…again.

The beast's corpse was a disgusting sight to see, it had a huge hole in the middle of its head from the several blows to the face. Its eyeballs were disconnected and utterly useless. A small pool of blood was forming to the side of its head. Lee sighed with relief, putting the hammer down. He put his hands on his knees, catching his breath.

"Man…" he breathed.

That's when Lee noticed the still shadow of the girl who had assisted him.

"Hi there." Lee acknowledged.

The girl fearfully and slowly backed up from the freshly spilled blood coming from the corpse. "Did you kill it?" she asked, scared that it might still be alive. Truth be told, Lee didn't know if it was still alive either but he sincerely hoped so.

"I don't know. I think so." Lee said.

"Sometimes they come back." She whispered fearfully.

"Have _you _killed one?"

"No. But they get shot a lot."

Lee got to his knees so he was at eye-level with the girl. "You've been all by yourself through this?" he asked, taking great pity on the little girl

"Yeah. I want my parents to come home now." Clementine said.

Lee remembered the messages on the answering machine and grimaced sadly a bit, his head facing down in hidden sorrow. "I think that might be a little while, you know?"

"Oh." Clementine said, her face lowering sadly.

He got closer to her. "Look, I don't know what happened. But I'll look after you until then." Lee told her, as he made a silent promise to help her find her parents, dead or alive, no matter what.

"What should we do now?" The girl inquired.

Lee thought about it, these _monsters_ or whatever were really sneaky. Better to be able to see them than to give them another advantage, after all only an idiot would go out during the night.

"We need to find help before it gets dark." Lee suggested, choosing the safety of daylight.

"Yeah, it's not safe at night." The girl agreed.

"Let's go. Stay close to me." Instructed Lee as the little girl gripped his arm tightly.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Lee exited the home, with Clementine, the little girl, right behind him. Now that it wasn't so dark, he could tell what she looked like. She wore a white, long dress and a blue and white cap. On the cap was a big 'D'. The cap covered a bush of frizzy and puffy, short, black hair. Her skin color was a nice shade of light brown.

Clementine stared at the door blankly before quickly shutting the sliding door behind her and glancing at Lee. Then, she began to run ahead of Lee down the porch steps. When Lee caught up to her, he found her gazing out through the gates into the street. Lee walked ahead, towards the metal bars. He then noticed two people, make that two _living_ people, working together to maneuver a green, smashed car out of the way. The street was entirely littered with broken cars and debris. It was a wonder how the two men had gotten past all that and the monsters that were around. He heard the chubbier brown-headed person who looked to be about twenty-eight voiced his complaints, shaking his head.

"Maaan… I ain't never getting' home to mama at this rate."

"This sucks." The other man agreed.

"It's hot dish night." He babbled remorsefully, looking as if the world would end without it, which amused Lee a bit.

They once again bent over and continued to heave the obstacle out of the way, but to no avail. This was good, maybe one of these guys could tell him what the hell was going on. Lee was about to go open the gate to go and assist the two men seeing that they needed very much so, when Clementine stopped him. He knelt to her eye-level.

"What's the matter?" he questioned worryingly and impatiently.

"Should I stay?" She asked, surprising Lee.

"What?"

"I don't want to sleep in the tree house tonight, but I don't know if I should leave. What if my parents come home?" Clementine asked.

Lee thought for a second, he had no clue whether or not her parents were alive or not and was just as clueless as to if they would come back here, what with all the destruction and everything but regardless he was not about to leave this little girl here all alone. That's for sure.

"I won't leave you alone." He assured her. This made her smile with relief.

"Let's go somewhere safe that's close, ok?"

"That's a good idea." Lee approved. This little girl was smarter then he thought.

They turned their attention back to the two young men who were still having trouble removing the car from their vehicle's pathway. Clementine stepped forward and pushed against the metal gate, causing a loud, squeaky noise as it pushed through. This caused the two men to reflexively flinch and turn their way.

"Hey man!" Lee called out.

"HOLY COW!" The one with the black hair, who looked to be in his mid twenties, possibly twenty-five, exclaimed.

"DON'T EAT US!" The other man with the messy pulled back hair pleaded.

"We're not going to hurt you." Lee persuaded them, limping his way towards them while holding his hands up. It was understandable to think that he was one of those things, with his busted leg and blood-stained clothing. All that was missing was some groans and snarls. Just add that and voila, he was one of them. It took a second for the two of them two relax.

"Phew, thought for a second you and the little one were BOTH going to give us the chomp." The black-haired one explained.

"Do you know what the hell this _is?"_ Lee asked.

"No idea. So you've seen them then?" He answered, gesturing with his eyes to a battered monster not too far away. Its corpse seemed recent, so it must've been the two of them who had taken it out. Probably.

"You could say that."

"I'm Shawn, Shawn Greene."

"Lee, this is Clementine." Lee said, gesturing to the eight year old that was practically behind him.

The chubbier one got on his knee and waved at Clementine. "I'm Chet," he said.

Clementine smiled subtlety and shyly hid behind Lee, which he thought was cute in a way.

Shawn continued. "We shouldn't be out in the open like this. How about you help us clear the way and we'll take you and your daughter out of here, and down to my family's farm. It should be safer there."

Lee frowned at that last part. "I'm not her dad. I'm…," he began before pausing, should he lie or tell the truth? He settled with the truth, since lying would get him absolutely nowhere. "…just some guy."

"Some guy?" Shawn questioned, noticing what Lee said.

"Yeah." Lee confirmed. In a sense that's all he really was, now that his job was gone and the world was currently going to hell.

"She's alone?" He asked with disbelief in his voice. He looked over at Chet, "Let's get going. Staying put for too long is a mistake."

Lee nodded, but turned to Clementine. "What do you want to do?" he asked, wanting to hear her opinion on the matter.

Clementine shook her head slightly and anxiously glanced back at her home, the number was 5240.

"I…" she began as she looked back at Lee with an indecisive look on her face. She still seemed reluctant to leave her home and Lee didn't blame her.

Suddenly, Chet interrupted with urgency, "Them monsters comin'! WE GOTTA GO!" he shouted in a quiet tone.

It was true; several of them came staggering down the car-flooded street, in pursuit of them. They would be there in no time.

Shawn positioned himself over the top of the green hood. "Lee, quick! Let's go!"

There was no time to lose, Lee quickly joined Shawn's side, ignoring the sharp pain in his leg and started to help push the vehicle while Chet tended to their red truck and watched their backs. The first push shoved the car back quite a bit, but it was still pretty heavy. During the second push, Clementine dashed in between the two men and also helped to shove. Lee was beginning to like this girl more every minute.

When the obstacle was finally out of the truck's way, Shawn hopped into the front cab with Lee and Clementine. With no remaining room in the front, Chet took the back of the truck. He backed himself up as far as he could against the truck wall as Shawn started their get-away vehicle. It was a close escape, the monsters nearly got Chet. Fortunately, Shawn immediately floored the accelerator. He hit a few things as the group sped away down the sharp corner of the street, no longer abiding driving laws.

He turned to Lee. "For just 'some guy', it seems like you've saved a bunch of lives today," he said. Lee felt grateful for that remark. He then noticed Clementine looking back toward her house while the monsters continued to shamble after them before turning away. I guess it was true what they said; you can't go home again.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

It was late at night when Lee and his unlikely partners and friends arrive in the countryside. The moon shined brightly in the night sky. Clementine and Lee both exchanged friendly glances and smiles with each other while Chet relaxed in the back and Shawn drives. They drove past rows and rows of tall crops. There are enough crops to provide food for an extremely long period of time. But in the glow of the night, these crops seemed dangerous and house many secretive things, good and bad. You'd never know what could sneak up behind you with these tall growths.

Shawn turned onto a pathway that was surrounded by the same crops. He slows down and eventually parks his truck next to a house, which Lee assumed was his family's farmhouse. The farmhouse was dimly lit from one window and the porch light. On the wall of the house, there is a green sign that says, "THE GREENES". There is a large red barn to the right of the house. A long line of brown fence circles the perimeter of the farmland. All in all, the place didn't look too bad.

Chet hopped out of his makeshift seat, stretching his sore arms from the bumpy ride here.

"Hey, Shawn… I'm a' run on home. My mama's gonna be in a snit," h said

"No sweat, man. I'll catch you tomorrow night."

"It was nice to meet ya both." Chet expressed, nodding at Clementine and Lee before taking off. Lee waved to him as he left.

Clementine held Lee hand as the house's front door opens with a loud creak. An old, fifty-nine year old bearded man is at the door. He was dressed in a green, long-sleeved shirt that has a badge and his legs are draped in black.

"Thank God, you're ok." He says relieved, walking towards Shawn.

"I was worried it'd be bad here, too." Shawn admitted, going up to the man and pulling him into a tight hug.

The man returned the hug and gave Shawn a friendly pat on the back.

"Been quiet as usual the past couple days. Ol' Breckon down the way thinks his mare's gone lame but that ain't nothing new," he informed Shawn.

"I wouldn't have made it back without Chet."

"Well, I'm glad you took him with you then."

The bearded fellow turned to Lee and Clementine, putting his hands on his waist. "You've brought a couple guests." It sounded more like a statement than a question.

Lee took the chance to speak, feeling like they were over staying their welcome as it was. "We just need a little… help. We won't stay long," he promised.

"Good. You're welcome to stay here, but just for the night. I don't run a bed and breakfast." He advises, before continuing. "So it's just you and your daughter then."

Shawn corrects his misunderstanding, "Oh, not his daughter, he's… well… Just some guy who found her alone."

The old man gets to Clementine's eyelevel, similar to Lee. "Honey, do you know this man?"

"Yes." Clementine responds quietly and with a slight pause.

"Ok then." He notes, nodding his head, before gesturing to Lee's injuries. "Well, looks like you hurt your leg pretty bad there."

"Yeah, it's not doing so good." He admitted, feeling the throbbing pain once more.

"I can help you out. Shawn, run on in and check on your sister. You, take a seat up on the porch and I'll go see what I have." The man said while Shawn went back into the house.

Lee sat himself up on the porch's bench. Clementine watching with worried eyes. The old man reappears in the door with a bottle of pills and squinted at Clementine, before shaking his head and heading to Lee.

"Let's have a look," he said as he feels the injury on Lee's leg, "Yeah, this is swollen to hell."

"It hurts like hell." Lee responded while wincing in pain as the man began to work on his injured leg.

"I bet it does." The man agreed before returning to his work. "What'd you say your name was?"

"It's Lee," he replied.

"Nice to meet you Lee, I'm Hershel Greene." The old man said, happy to know his name. He then began to bandage his wounds, which made Lee wince a bit.

"How'd this happen?" Hershel curiously asked.

Lee didn't see any point in saying so he decided to tell him the truth instead of lying. "Car accident," he replied.

"That so." Hershel said, taking note of what Lee said. "Where you headed? Before the car accident."

"I was getting out of Atlanta." Lee responded, which was technically true since the prison he was headed for AKA The West Georgia Correctional Facility was outside of Atlanta.

"The news says stay." Hershel reminded him.

"Yeah, well that's a mistake." Lee told him. "We hit a guy, one of those things you've been hearing about, on the road."

"Who were you with, the girl?" Hershel asked suspiciously.

Lee was a bit worried but continued to tell the truth, but just a little bit this time. "I was with a Police Officer. He was giving me a ride."

Hershel seemed to believe Lee. "Awful nice of him," he remarked.

Lee smiled. "I'm an awful nice guy."

"House is full up with mine. We've got another displace family of three sleeping in the barn. You and your daughter are welcome to rest there, when we're done here." Hershel explained. Lee frowned at his inability to remember that she wasn't his daughter but shrugged it off.

Mr. Greene turns to Clementine. ""I didn't catch your name, darlin'."

She hesitates, but nervously tells Hershel her name. "Clem-Clementine."

"Can't imagine what you've been through, Clementine." His reply sounding sincere.

"I'm looking after her until we find her parents." Lee explained, since he had practically promised it to her.

Shawn then appeared through the archway and behind his father. "Hey dad, so I'm thinking, first thing tomorrow, we gotta reinforce the fence around the farm," he said.

"That doesn't seem necessary." Hershel replies, dismissing the idea.

"I don't know what you saw on TV, or heard on the radio, but there's some serious… 'stuff' hitting the fan." Shawn said, knowing Clementine was close by and that he didn't want to swear around her, "I don't think anyone knows how big it is yet."

Lee supported Shawn, like him he had seen what those things could do, and it wasn't pretty. "Your son's right. You're going to want to fortify this place," he told Hershel.

"Stuff like that doesn't happen around here, Shawn."

"Dad, I'm serious. Lee, come on, tell him what you saw out there, man." Shawn pressed.

"I got chased by a couple of dead people." Lee said solemnly, remembering the dark memory of him trying to get away from those things in the woods.

Hershel relented. "Well, do what you think you should. We've got plenty of chores as it is."

"Lee and those folks in the barn can help out in the morning. We gotta do it, really." Shawn added.

"I already said ok." Hershel replied, starting to get annoyed.

Shawn then disappeared back into the house. Hershel continued his business. "Well, I'm all done here. It should start to feel better tomorrow."

"Thanks." Lee said, expressing his gratitude. He looked down at his leg. It did look and feel a helluva lot better than before.

"If your leg gets hot or the swelling doesn't go down; you're probably dealing with an infection."

"What do we do then?" Lee asked, worry creasing his forehead.

"We'll probably just have to _shoot_ you." Hershel said with a serious expression.

Shocked and scared looks appeared on his and Clementine's face as well.

"We'll clean it, re-dress it and you'll be fine." Hershel admits, ending his personal joke there. Both Lee and Clementine gave him a deadpan look.

"Ok, that'd be preferable," Lee said, flatly.

"There's blankets and such in the barn. We'll be seeing you bright and early." Hershel pointed out, "Come tomorrow, which way you think you're headed?"

"Towards Macon, I suppose." Lee replied. Like Clementine he also wanted to know if his family was ok as well, and since they were pretty close it just made sense.

Hershel nodded and turned to look at Clementine. Once again he squinted and smiled at her, before heading back into the house.

Lee stood up. "Alright then," he said, putting his hands in his pockets.

* * *

In the barn, there are thin blankets that have been positioned on top of the plentiful amount of hay that has swallowed up the ground. Unknown to them, the 'displaced family of three' that Hershel mentioned earlier were sitting just above them. As Lee laid his head down onto the hard, flat pillow, Clementine broke the silence.

"It smells like…" she began to say.

Lee turns his head to look at her, and cut her off before she could say it. "I know what it smells like."

"Doo-dee." She finished, saying it anyway.

Lee looked at Clementine, before she spoke up once more.

"I miss my mom and dad," she whispered

"I bet, Clem."

"How far is Savannah?"

"Pretty far," Lee told her. In fact it was miles from where they were so it would take them a while to get there.

"Oh. Ok." She whispered, before drifting off to sleep. Lee followed suit. The barn became very quiet just then.

_In Lee's head, his dream projects moments with his ex-wife. "I love you, baby." She cooed. Then the dream projects moments where she's laughing. Then, all of a sudden, there was a loud crash of expensive plates and the shrill shriek of hers._

Lee sat up as he wakes from his bad dream, flinching and gasping for breath. The effects of the dream still echoing and bouncing numbly in his cranium. After telling himself that it was just a dream he laid back down, and quickly fell asleep, exhausted from the day's events.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

"Hey, get up." A rough but friendly voice ordered, before softening its tone.

Lee opened his eyes to a man towering over him who looked to be about forty-two or something like that. He, like Clementine, was also wearing a cap. This hat was orange with a white stripe down the front. He had a thick handlebar mustache and shaggy hair poking out from under his hat. The man wore a beaded necklace and a short-sleeved white shirt. The shirt had a symbol on it but Lee couldn't make out what it was. Lee sat up and looked over to Clementine who woken up and was rubbing her arms.

"I'm itchy." She mumbled.

"Well you slept in a barn, little lady. Lucky you don't have spiders in your hair." The man in the orange cap explained, causing Clementine to gasp and instinctively check fearfully, "But I bet your daddy scared 'em all away, huh?""

"I'm uh not her dad. Name's Lee." Lee pointed out. It seemed like explaining this was going to become a routine.

"I'm Kenny." He nodded.

There was a squeaky, high-pitched voice that suddenly appeared along with a small, freckled ten-year old boy.

"Dad! We're gonna build a fence! There's a tractor and everything!" The lad exclaimed, before running off, out of view.

"We better get going or we won't hear the end of it." Kenny suggested, with a slight smile on his face.

Kenny exited the barn, with Lee and Clementine tailing behind, holding hands. Lee was thankful to whatever last night's medicine and Hershel had done for him, for his leg barely hurt anymore.

"That's my boy, Ken Junior. We call him Duck, though."

Lee had to replay that statement in his head to make sure he heard it right. Did they _really_ call their kid 'Duck'?

"Duck?" he questioned, both in disbelief and in surprise.

"Yeah. Nothing bothers him. Like water off a duck's back, y'know?" Kenny said.

"That's a valuable trait lately." Lee admitted.

"No kidding. But frankly, I think it's because he's as dumb as a bag of hammers." Kenny reasoned.

Duck shouted impatiently, "DAAAAD!"

Kenny looked over at Lee, "But he makes up for it with enthusiasm."

The trio approached Duck and a forty-year old woman dressed in a floral dress who Lee assumed was his mother.

"The word is you were on your way to Macon." Kenny stated.

"My family is from there." Lee said.

"Well Macon's on the way and, personally, I'd appreciate the company of a guy who can knock a couple of heads together if he has to." Kenny said.

Lee thought for a minute, traveling with others could be very nice plus they seemed like good people to him, though he didn't want to do anything that would Clementine upset in anyway.

"I'll see what the girl would like," he said.

"Ah. Gotta consult the missus. I understand." Kenny said, before turning to his family. "Honey, Duck, this is Lee and uh, what's the girl's name?"

"Clementine." Lee responded for Clementine, who shyly hid behind his leg.

"Clementine." repeated Kenny.

Kenny's wife spoke up, "That is a very pretty name."

"Thanks." Clementine hesitantly replied.

Shawn then appeared joined the conversation. "Well, we should get to work. We've all seen what these things can do out there so the faster we get this fence up, the better."

"I want to build a fence.:" Duck babbled.

"Yeah? Well I need a good foreman. You can sit on the tractor and yell at me whenever I take a water break." Shawn encouraged with a smile.

"On the tractor? Cool!" Duck exclaimed, his eyes widening with excitement and enthusiasm.

"Duck and I will hop to it."

After finishing his talk, Shawn began to walk to the back of the house, Duck following suit.

Katjaa spoke, "I can keep an eye on your little girl here on the porch. We can visit."

As she said this, Clementine willingly sat beside her and Kenny went to tend to his vehicle.

Lee walked towards Kenny, deciding to check up on him first. He could hear Clementine and Katjaa have a friendly conversation in the background.

"Hey there, uh, Kenny. Need any help?" Lee asked.

"Naw, I think I got it." Kenny replied, staring intently into the works of his truck, "Do YOU need any help?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, in taking care of that little girl. You know what you're doing? You got kids of your own?"

Lee shook his head with a smile. "I have no idea what I'm doing," he said, which was a bit of an understatement for him.

"At least your honest." Kenny smiled with a slight chuckle, happy to have learned something about Lee. "Shoot. Better then I was when Duck showed up. You'll figure it out."

"How's your son doing?"

"Good, I think. Katjaa's got a sister up in Memphis; we were coming back from visiting her. We were in a gas station and some guy grabbed my boy." Kenny expressed, standing up from his work, "I thought he was kidnapping him. I was on the guy in about two seconds and… Christ. Just lucky I was there. We saw a lot of bodies before we stumbled upon Hershel's. But we're a tough family, Lee. Ain't nothing gonna faze us."

Lee decided to bring up another topic. "So what's your family's plan?"

"Get back on down to Lauderdale and let this mess get sorted out." Kenny began, "Government will start handing out shots and the National Guard will do its thing. On the odd chance things got too bad, we could hop on my boat, I guess."

"You've got a boat?" Lee inquired.

"I'm a commercial fisherman, catching mackerel, dolphin, whatever's biting and paying. Katjaa wouldn't be wild about it, but the boat's not that bad."

Lee was impressed, it seemed that this guy Kenny was smarter then he looked and know that he knew about his boat maybe he could convince him to take him and Clem along with them, or perhaps just Clem since he still felt like he wasn't worth the trouble after what he did and all.

Deciding that there was nothing much else to say to Kenny, Lee turned to leave.

"See ya." Lee said.

Lee strode over to the Clementine and Katjaa who seemed very happy at the moment. "Hey there, girls. You two actually looked relaxed."

"I think we're doing just fine, Clementine was just telling me about first grade." She explained.

"Oh, uh. How is that?" said Lee, with a smile.

"It's easy." Clementine insisted with a shrug.

"Well, yeah." Lee stated, a bit bluntly.

Lee glanced at Katjaa who gave him a bit of a glare, before speaking again.

"Sooo you're good?" Lee questioned, happy to know a little bit more about the girl, like that fact that she was a first grader which was a bit odd considering her age but Lee didn't dwell on it.

Katjaa ignored his question. "Anyway, it's almost like we didn't see people eating each other for the past three days. It's peaceful here, no?"

Lee had to agree, it _was_ much better than back in that neighbourhood. He decided to talk about something else. Something more serious.

"How did you handle getting through the city?" he asked a bit solemnly and concerned.

"Kenny just…drove. We passed so many people that needed help. And… we just… passed people, over some. Just…just…" She expressed remorsefully, hanging her head low.

"It's ok. It's fine, you don't have to say anymore." Lee told her, not wanting her to dwell on such things."

"I want to go home tomorrow, but even then I can't take away the things we – the things Duck – went through." She paused for a second, "Don't you want to go back to the moment before you knew about all this?"

What she asked was a bit of a stupid question to Lee. Like who _wouldn't_ want to go back to the way things were? But Lee ignored the fact that it was a dumb questioned and spoke.

"Anybody in their right mind would. Families and BBQ's and beer's with good friends." Lee mused.

Katjaa smiled wistfully. "All of those things."

"Those are the things we live for, right? With those gone, what's the point?" Lee shrugged. He then decided to talk about a less grim topic. "So uhh, what do you do when… corpses aren't walking around?"

"I'm a veterinarian back in Fort Lauderdale – like Hershel, here, except more with dogs and cats and not horses." Katjaa explained, "What is it that you do, Lee?"

"I used to teach up at the University of Georgia." Lee said, now knowing that Katjaa was a veterinarian.

"We need to HOPE that we can go back to our jobs soon, Lee. Back to normal. It can't stay like this."

"No, I used to." Lee corrected her. "I was let go a little while back."

"That's too bad." Katjaa said, sympathetically now knowing that Lee was fired. "Well, I hear people always clamor back to college after a big disaster. People don't want to die ignorant, I guess."

Since the conversation between him and Katjaa was coming to an end. It was time to check up on the others.

"Back in a bit," he said."

Katjaa nodded. "Ok, Lee."

Lee walked over to the back of the house where Shawn and Duck were at work on the fence. Well, just Shawn, who was hammering away at the wood. Duck was just sitting on top of the tractor, daydreaming and pretending he was driving it. He waved to Dusk in a friendly manner, who waved back happily.

"How ya doing, Duck?" Lee asked.

"Good! I'm gonna drive the tractor!" Dusk said, as he started to play around with the gear shifter. "I'm the foreman! Lift with your back, Shawn!"

Lee then went over to Shawn, who was still busy at work.

"Hey, Lee," he said.

He looked over at all the fence Shawn was going to reinforce, it looked like he could use a little help, plus a little hard work never hurt anybody.

"Need a hand?" Lee offered.

"That'd be great. If you could cut those two-bys to length, that'd sure speed things up." Shawn replied in a cheery tone, gesturing to the planks of wood with his hammer.

Lee was happy to help; he walked over to the planks and gripped the handsaw. He began to cut the pieces in half, making small talk with Shawn.

Shawn began with a solemn tone, "My dad doesn't know how bad it is."

"No, he doesn't." Lee agreed.

"I saw a guy in Atlanta kill a kid. A boy. Just shot him right in the face."

"Was the boy one of the walkers?"

"I don't even know. He was either attacking the guy or asking for help. He didn't even hesitate. He just turned, put the barrel of the gun right between the kid's eyes and pulled the trigger." Shawn explained sorrowfully, "You don't see things like that. It's not like in the movies."

"They don't fall like you think." Lee mused.

Shawn blinked as he turned to Lee. "Did you have to do it?"

"Do what?"

"Kill. Have you had to off one yet?"

"Oh, uh…" Lee hesitated, thinking back to the babysitter who he had to kill recently. "I bashed a poor girl's brains in."

Shawn looked a bit unnerved by that little piece of information. "Whoa, I couldn't do that," he said, not looking like he would forget it. He then changed the topic. "I'm just glad we're getting this fence built. Dad just wants to keep the family safe and thinks inviting people in is a bigger threat than whatever's out there."

Shawn paused before speaking again. "How about yours? How's your family?"

It pained Lee to think about his family but he continued anyway. "My brother and parent's in Macon, I hope," he responded, sounding a bit worried about them considering everything that was going on at the moment.

"Oh man, I hope so too. Maybe it's not too bad there." Shawn said, hopefully.

Lee began to pick up another piece when Shawn stops him. "That's probably all I need cut for now. Thanks."

"And Shawn, thanks again for the ride."

"No problem, Lee. Couldn't leave you behind." says Shawn with a smile, "Anyway, when you see my dad around, he might want some help in the barn."

Lee looked over at the entrance to the hay-filled barn just as Hershel strode inside. Lee followed him in.

Hershel was busy shoveling hay with a pitchfork when Lee walked in. He lifted his head and squinted annoyingly at him, before resuming shoveling.

"How'd you get out Atlanta?" Hershel asked.

Lee felt like he had already answered that question but did so anyway. "…I got a ride and then I was in a wreck. I walked until your boy found me."

"Hmm. Well you're no worse for wear." The farmer remarked.

"Heh, had you told me twenty years ago I'd still be doing this, I would've told you that you were full of crud. Never was the plan, having a place like this. It was in the family, and I guess so was I. Family's important; it's all that matters. You agree with that?" He asked; a serious and intimidating look on his face.

"Was brought up to, yes."

"Where's your family now? Parents? Wife? Girlfriend?"

"My parents are in Macon, with my brother." Lee responded sadly.

"Well I hope their alright." Hershel said, somewhat sincerely. "But now you've got this little girl to take care of. Clementine, is it? You just stumbled up-on her?"

"Yeah, I was looking for help in her house."

"Hmph." Hershel replied, sticking the pitchfork into the ground, the way farmers on television do, which made Lee nervous. "Can I give you a piece of advice?"

Lee raised a brow and frowned. "What is it?"

"I don't know who you are or what you did," he began. "Let's say things don't get better back in the cities. Or they get worse before they do. You're going to have to depend on the honesty of strangers if you're going to make it. And if those same people get to questioning yours, you're going to be in trouble. Oh, and I'd start checking the attitude, friend."

Lee was about to respond, when suddenly there is the loud rev of an engine turning on and a sharp scream.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

"What the?!—" exclaimed Lee, turning and running out the door. Looking for the source of the scream he just heard moments ago.

"GO! I'll get my gun." Hershel yelled from behind him, his face for once showing fear.

Lee quickly flew past Katjaa and towards the source of the noise. Shawn's leg had been crushed by the tractor! Monsters, attracted by Shawn's screams reached in through the fence, trying to bite him. The fence preventing them from doing so was starting to snap. Duck, who was in the seat of the tractor, leaned out of his chair with a confused and blank look on his face. Suddenly, another one of the monsters reached for his leg and pulled him closer by the shoulders. He also screamed with fear.

Lee was torn, they both needed his help and it appeared that he could only save one of them; Hershel's son or Kenny's son.

Acting on sheer impulse Lee rushed over to Dusk and tried to pull him away from the monster that was trying to sink it's jaws into him but the creature appeared to be stronger then he thought.

"DON'T LET' EM TAKE ME!" Duck hollered.

Kenny then appeared, ran over to his son and tried to pull him away from the reaches of the monster attacking him butt he was having just has much trouble as Lee did. The former history professor then gave the monster a good punch to its rotten face, causing it to release Duck and allowing Kenny to pull him away.

"I got you!" he said to Duck, carrying him in his arms.

"Now Shawn!" Lee told Kenny, hoping Kenny could save Shawn in time.

"GET THIS TRACTOR OFF OF ME!" Shawn shouted to Kenny. But Kenny panicked, and ran, taking his son to a safer area of the farm with Shawn's yells echoing out from behind him.

"LEE, HELP ME! PLEASE!" Shawn yelled. Lee ran over in an attempt to help Shawn but he was too late. Suddenly, there was a crackling of wood as the fence bar collapsed under the weight of the two monsters. Lee backed away in horror.

"AHHHH! AAHH! AHH!" Shawn screamed as the things bit into his leg and throat, splaying blood as they tore away at his flesh. Hershel arrived with his gun a moment too late as Clementine backed off and whimpered, scared by the sight of Shawn getting eaten alive. Hershel's face fell when he realized he was too late to save Shawn. He shot one of the monsters, which flew off him. The second one stopped its meal to raise its head and snarl at the sound of the rifle, before Hershel shot him too; causing its whole head to explode. A third monster appeared from the field, growling with his arms forward, before Hershel planted a bullet through its brain. When the threat was neutralized Hershel headed to Shawn's body. But he was already dead.

Kenny and his family and Clementine walked over to the bloody scene. Hershel got on his knees with a mortified look on his face.

"Get out." Hershel said with a low growl. He stood up, a deep scowl appeared on his face, "GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE."

"I'm sorry." expressed Kenny, looking down.

"SORRY? Your son is alive. You don't get to be sorry." half-screamed Hershel, before turning to Lee, clearly angry. "And YOU. You didn't even try to help."

Lee spoke up, "I'm sorry."

"Look at him." Hershel said, gesturing to Shawn's dead body. "Sorry, is no dang good."

Hershel then turned away. "Please, just go," he said sadly before his sadness turned to anger and he yelled at them once more. "Get out and never come back."

Hershel kneeled next to his son's corpse to mourn.

Lee turned to Kenny, giving him a subtle nod as Kenny intently stared back. Katjaa and him looked at Clementine who gave them a sad look.

"You've got that ride to Macon if you want it." Kenny mumbled sadly, before leaving with his family for his truck. Lee and Clementine followed later on.

* * *

Kenny had driven the group right into the middle of Macon. The streets were deserted and messy with broken, smashed cars and blood. Power lines were dipping into the streets and there were papers littered around. That was when Kenny's truck stuttered a few times before slowing to a complete stop. The vehicle was out of juice.

"Well, this is as far as we're going." Kenny indicated.

Lee opened the door, "Then it's far enough."

The group exited the vehicle; they have stopped in the middle of a street with several stores on it, some that Lee remembered fondly. He pets Clementine on the head before following the others away from the truck. Lee notices his family's drug store, illuminated with its large neon letters. He stared at it sadly. When the group reaches the corner of the street which Lee's drug store is on, Duck notices something and points towards it.

"Look!" he exclaimed.

Down the street, there are overturned cars. The others don't miss the crouched figure, the top half of his body shielded by a car on its side.

Kenny steps forward and waves his arms. "Hey there! You friendly? Truck's run out of gas."

The figure reveals itself, snarling at him. It is anything BUT _friendly._ It was one of the monsters feasting on a human body.

"SNAP!" Kenny yelled, backing off. The sound attracted several of the things, as they begin to emerge from their hiding spots. Lee and his new group of friends were surrounded.

"We're TRAPPED!" Katjaa exclaimed

"WAAH!" Duck shrieked, as one of the things topples over him, attempting to bite him, "AHHH! NO! NO! HELP!"

Suddenly there was a loud bang and the splatter of blood as a bullet pierced Duck's pursuer and it hit the ground. Duck pulled himself up, in shock.

His savior was a young thirty-three year old woman, wearing a long-sleeved white dress shirt and black skirt. She had medium-length, brown hair which reaches the bottom of her neck. She gripped the pistol in her hand skillfully and fired a few more shots as Kenny and Katjaa embrace Duck. Her aim was true, as it takes down another of the monsters with ease.

"RUN!" Another voice yelled, it came from a twenty-two year old Asian man with a striped cap. He is wearing a brown leather jacket, and a red logo shirt. His face was beginning to sprout a prickly beard. Lee and the others are quick to heed his order. The woman fired two more shots as the group rushes past the metal gates. The man quickly slammed the gate shut and locked it with a combination lock. He does so just in time too, as the horde is beginning to thrash against the sturdy metal. He then joined the others, inside the pharmacy.

* * *

As soon as everyone is inside, a chubby thirty-year old man stood on lookout, occasionally taking peeks out the window.

"We can't take risks like this!" A different woman who looked to be about thirty-one said loudly.

"And we can't just let people die, either." The girl with the gun retorted.

"When I SAY 'that door stays shut no matter what' I freaking MEAN it." This woman has longer brown hair. She has a matching brown tank top. Her expression looks wary and exhausted. She continues speaking, "We don't know who these people are; they could be dangerous!"

"Worse, they could've led them right to us." A burly old, fifty-six year old man angrily added

"Where the hell is your humanity?!" The sharpshooter argued "They would have died out there!"

"Then we let 'em!" The old man stated.

Lee spoke up. "We're not dangerous; we're just regular folks!"

"What's DANGEROU S is a bunch of people running outside and drawing their attention to us." The lady stated.

"Lee's right. We're just regular folks, but WE actually like helping people." Kenny added.

The sharpshooter interrupted, "You'll have to excuse her."

"The hell he, or ANYONE will. This is about survival, do you guys not see what's happening?"

Clementine pulled on Lee's arm to get his attention.

"What is it?" Lee asked, a bit stressed.

"I…I have to pee."

"I'd go out there again in a second." The Asian boy whispered.

"I bet you would." The woman said.

"In a minute Clem." Lee told the girl, softly.

Clem nodded and let go of Lee's arm, looking down.

The Asian man spoke up, "They've got kids, Lilly," he pointed out.

"Those things outside don't care."

Kenny cut in, "Maybe you should go join 'em, then. You'll have something in common!"

The old man scowled, "God darn it, Lilly. You've have to control these people!"

"Carley and Glenn just ran out there!" Lilly said, defending herself. Clementine spots a washroom and inched her way towards it while no one was looking.

"I don't give a darn! We're in a war zone!" The old man stated, frustrated.

"She's an dirtbag, that's for sure." Lee muttered to Kenny, even though it was out loud.

"That's what it takes." Lilly sneered. She would defiantly remember what he called her.

"Well you don't have to be a witch about it."

Suddenly, the old man turned and looked at Duck a bit scarred, who was getting the blood cleaned off of him by Katjaa.

"Holy CRUD. Son of a jackal, one of them is bitten!" he exclaimed

Lee defends Duck, "He wasn't bitten."

"Hell he wasn't! We have to end this, now." The man walks over to Duck and Katjaa with a murderous look in his eyes.

Kenny stepped in to intervene, clearly looking angry. "Over my dead body."

"We'll dig one hole."

"No! I\m cleaning him up! There's no bite! He's fine!" Katjaa denied

"Don't you freaking people get it? We've already SEEN this happen. We let someone with a bite stay and-and WE all end up bitten!"

"Shut up." Kenny yelled, emphasizing each individual word.

"We gotta throw him out! Or smash his head in!|

"KENNY! STOP HIM!" Katjaa shrieked.

"Lee, what do we do about this guy?"

Lilly tried to calm him down, "Dad, it's just a boy."

"Lily, I'll handle this." Her dad told her.

"But your heart Dad, you need to calm down." Lily said to him. "We'll get this kid out of here."

Lee folded his arms, frowning. "It's either him or your son. I say it's him."

"God darn right; out on HIS butt with those THINGS!" Kenny said.

Carley yelled, "Everyone CHILL THE HELL OUT!"

"Nobody is doing ANYTHING." Lilly replied, upset.

"Shut up, Lilly!" her father commanded, before turning to Carley, "And YOU. Shut the hell up. They will find us and they will get in here, and none of this will freaking matter. But right now we're about to be TRAPPED in here with one of those things."

"What the hell are you talkin' about?" Kenny angrily asked.

"He's bitten! That's how you TURN," he said, stressed.

"He's not bitten!" Katjaa insisted, "Lee, stop this! It's upsetting him!"

"Oh. I'm 'upsetting' him? Upsetting is getting eaten alive!"

"Dad, we get it, it's a big deal." Lily stated.

"Do you? You're not freaking acting like it." The man pointed out.

"What if this was your daughter?" Lee questioned.

"NEVER would have happened! She's not some snot-nosed toddler ok? She's United States Air Force!"

"Oh screw you AND her!" Kenny snapped, surprising the man just a small bit. "I'm gonna kill him, KAT. Just worry about Duck!"

Suddenly, a quiet voice away from the group called out,

"Lee?"

It was Clementine.

"Yeah?" Lee called back to her.

"There's _someone_ in there." Clementine replied, holding her stomach.

"It's just locked. Key's behind the counter. Probably." He replied with a shrug, before rejoining the argument.

"Hey, I'm not the bad guy here. I'm just looking out for my daughter!" The old man yelled in his defense.

"No, you're just the guy arguing for killing a kid!" Kenny retorted.

"He's covered in muck! She'll find the bite. WATCH."

"She won't."

"And if she DOES?" Larry countered, he then began to talk in a very creepy manner as he turned to Lee. "The first thing he'll do is sink his teeth into his mom's face. Then once she's dead, he'll probably pounce on YOUR little girl. She'll turn fast, then they'll be THREE"

"He's a little boy; I think we can handle him." Lee said.

The man looked at him incredulously. "A little boy? He'll be an uncontrollable man eater!"

Kenny interrupted, "It's not gonna happen!"

"It is and we're tossing him out NOW!" Larry shouted in his face, twitching slightly.

Lee stopped him, getting right into Larry's view, he had had enough of this. "NO. You don't touch that boy, you don't TOUCH anybody. I've got a little girl I'm trying to protect in here too. You want to get violent you old piece of crud?! Well, COME ON. You better have a plan to kill me though, because it's ME before anyone else in here."

All of a sudden, in the heat of the moment, there was a high-pitched scream that could've come from only one person in here. Clementine. Extreme worry creased Lee's forehead. Clementine had managed to unlock the washroom door, only to be jumped by a monster that had somehow managed to get locked inside. She reacted quickly and backed up, causing the thing to hit the ground and struggled to grab her ankles. Everyone was shocked.

"Jesus!" The old man exclaimed.

"CLEMENTINE!" Lee cried as he quickly rushed to get to her side. He bumped right into Lilly though and tripped, hitting the floor and blurring his vision. He quickly got to his feet and ran to Clementine who was trying her best to not get bitten by the crawling and snarling fiend.

"Get away from her you son of a bitch!"| Lee barked as he grabbed the beast's shoulders and threw him back. Then, it turned on him, trying to bite his throat as Lee fought back. "Ah, God, get…off…ugh…"

It got really close to biting Lee when a gun sounded and a bullet flew straight into its head, effectively killing it.

Lee pushed it far from him and leaned over onto his knees. "Man…" he breathed.

He turned and saw Carley holding out her gun shakily,

"You ok?"

Lee managed to caught his breath as he stood up with Clementine by his side, still scared by her experience,

"Just great, thanks." Lee said.

Glenn turned to the doors, "Uh…guys?"

The monsters outside had heard the loud gunfire and were pounding against the barricaded windows.

The man on lookout stepped back in fear, before breaking out into a run to the farthest wall.

Lilly whispered an order, "Everybody DOWN! Stay QUIET!"

Everyone heeded the order and got down behind shelves and tables. Clementine quickly hide behind Lee, believing he would protect her like he did moment ago. Worry and fear was apparent on everyone's faces, including Duck's who appeared to be all cleaned up.

Larry peeked his head out from behind a shelf, he definitely looked scared now. "They're gonna get in!" he whispered.

"SHUT UP." Kenny half-whispered, half-ordered. He looked just as stressed as everybody else

There was a sudden rat-tat-tat-tat of bullets in the distance, and large thumps and bumps. The loud noises luckily attracted the monsters away from the pharmacy. There was even the sound of a helicopter flying by.

"Is that the military?" Lee wondered out loud.

"I don't know." Lilly replied.

"Thank God for whatever it is." Glenn stated.

"We almost DIED because of this idiot and her itchy trigger finger! That was stupid! That was— " Larry began, before groaning in pain and tightly clutching his chest as he began to fall to the ground.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

"DAD!" Lily cried out, rushing to her father's side. Larry clutched his chest tightly, yelping in pain as he collapsed onto the floor.

For the first time Lee looked worried for the man. "What's wrong with him?"

"It's his heart!" Lily said.

"My pills…" Her father requested weakly.

Katjaa stepped forward, "Uh-um… Nitroglycerin pills?"

"YES. We're out. We've been trying to get into the pharmacy since we got here! Please, try to get in there! Behind the counter, where the pills are!" Lily pleaded

"We'll get in there somehow." Lee said reassuringly.

"Thank you so much. We need nitroglycerin pills. Please get in there. I'll keep an eye on my dad."

Kenny stepped up the plate, taking charge, "Everyone else should get comfy and look for anything useful. We could be in here a while."

"I'm starting to think this drugstore isn't a permanent solution." Glenn agreed.

"You're right, this ain't exactly Fort Knox." Kenny nodded.

"What do you suggest?" Lee questioned Glenn,

"We need as much gas as possible so we can ALL get out of downtown Macon. Fast." Glenn stated.

Lee nodded. "Agreed."

"And I'll head out and get gas. There's a motel not too far from here, out towards the end of Peachtree. I'll work my way towards it and then loop back, siphoning what I can," he said.

Lee smiled. "Dang, that'd be great."

"Well, it's gotta get done. Plus, I'm quick and I know Macon."

"Local?"

"Born and raised." Glenn smiled.

"If you're going to do that, here's a walkie-talkie if you get in a tight spot. Hopefully you won't need it." Lee said, handing him the talkie that he had found in Clementine's house.

"Cool."

"Clementine's got the other one. Check in with her and get back here as soon as you can."

Glenn nodded, pocketing the talkie.

Kenny spoke, still in 'leader mode' and putting his hands on his hips. "And, you, what's your name?"

"It's Lilly. My dad's Larry."

"Keep a good eye on him. These boys will work on getting you your medicine."

"That's right." Lee supported.

"And you, you keep an eye on that front door. You're our lookout." Kenny continued, gesturing towards the man at the door.

"It's Doug, you got it."

"And I'm Carley." She said, standing behind Doug.

"Ok, Carley, you'll shift in with Doug when he needs it. For now, get some rest – you're a good shot and I'd like to keep it that way." Kenny advised.

Carley nodded. "You got it boss."

Lilly narrowed her eyes, obviously in distaste of Kenny taking charge of the group while Kenny continued issuing orders.

"Now get him those pills." He concluded, before the group set off to do their own thing in the building.

Lee walked past a group of shelves in back, examining the place before strolling towards Carley AKA the woman who just saved his life. At that moment she seemed to fiddling around with a radio then turned around when Lee started talking to her.

"You're a pretty good shot."

"Well you don't mess with a reporter, especially one that's three days out from her last cup of coffee."

"You seem to handle yourself pretty well." Lee remarked.

"Ha, really? I'm a disaster." Carley stated, unsure of herself.

"I can't tell." Lee told her.

A sad look appeared on Carley's face. "My news editor was eaten about five feet away from me and I would have joined her if it wasn't for that dorky guy on watch over there," she said.

"I'm sorry." Lee said, sympathetically.

"She was a jerk, but you know." Carley said with a slight shrug.

"Yeah." Lee responded, understandingly. His boss was a jerk as well but even so, no one deserves a fate like that. No one. Then what she said about the dorky guy known as Doug finally registered in his mind. He looked towards him. "_That_ guy saved you?"

"Yeah, can you believe it? Those creeps, or-or _ghouls_ or whatever the hell they are, they were pulling our van apart and that guy, Doug, just came to the rescue." Carley practically exclaimed.

"You can never tell who the heroic ones are gonna be, I suppose." Lee mused, trying hard not to flirt with her.

Carley looked towards Doug. "He's kind of cute, in that parent's basement sort of way…"

Lee raised a brow. "Huh?"

"Huh? Oh… nothing." Carley stuttered a bit embarrassed

"How'd you end up here?" Lee questioned.

"We drove up to cover the Cherry Blossom Festival. Real hard hitting stuff." Carley said, a bit sarcastically.

"Sounds worth it." Lee admitted, he had always liked that festival, ever since he was a kid. He then noticed the radio. "What are you messing around with there?"

"A radio. I can't get it to work though."

"Here, let me have a look." Lee offered, reaching a hand over and pulling it closer to him.

The radio was pretty simple enough; a large portion of it was the speaker, while the remaining side was divided into a channel setter and other controls. He adjusted the volume first, it was still silent. Then, Lee tapped the power button, "Hmm. Nothing." He flipped the radio over, where there was a lone battery compartment. He flicked it open.

"There are no batteries in this thing." He stated, flicking the compartment closed.

"What now?"

"You know that there are no batteries in that thing."

"Yeah, of course, I mean, yeah. No."

"I can try to find some. Needs two."

"Thanks, I wouldn't even really know what to look for." Carley admitted, obviously stating that she was horrible with technology.

Lee then walked towards Clementine who was sitting on a crate with her walkie-talkie. He wanted to make sure she was ok, after nearly being eaten by that thing.

"Hey there." Lee said, bending down to her height.

"Hi."

"Any word from Glenn?" Lee wondered.

"Nothing. Is he ok?" Clementine asked, concerned.

"Yeah, I think so. You're doing a good job." Lee assured her. He then began to wonder if she was hungry. "Can I get you anything?"

"I'm ok." She assured, then began to think. "Maybe I'm a little hungry."

"I'll see about that." Lee smiled, before he gazed at the little girl who was almost a stranger to him. "So…uh…"

"Are you ok?"

"What? Uh, yeah, yeah, I-I'm fine. I just uhh, I'm good." Lee stuttered

"That's good.' Clementine replied, slowly nodding her head.

'Yeah, I think so. Being good is good. Despite the circumstances." Lee told her. This conversation was starting to get a bit awkward.

"Yep."

It seemed that the 'getting to know each other' idea was a fault so he decided to end the conversation.

"We'll sit tight," he told her.

"Ok." Clementine said, looking up with a small smile.

Lee walked over to an ATM, he spotted a lone energy bar on the floor. Thinking of giving it to Clementine, he bent down and pocketed it. He also saw a battery nearby and picked it up as well. Lee then proceeded back to the little girl on the box.

"It's not much, but here you go, Clem." Lee said, offering the snack.

"Thank you." Clementine said as she took the bar.

"Of course." Lee replied, feeling better now that he knew he had taken care of Clementine.

Lee walked around a shelf before discovering another energy bar and picking it up before walking down the aisle, towards where Lilly was taking care of Larry.

"How's he doing?"

"I'm not sure I got your name." Lilly snapped, her previous sad emotions vanishing completely.

"It's Lee."

"Lilly. My dad's Larry." Lily said, standing up. "I was just doing what I had to earlier."

"Everyone was."

"You didn't have to call me a witch in front of my people." Lilly frowned, "I don't need that crud, all right? It's hard enough to be in charge of people's lives without some jerk cutting you down. And that violence before; with my dad – that didn't help."

Lee changed the subject, "You're from here?"

"I work at Warner Robbins. The Air Force base."

"Yeah, I know it. Pilot?"

"Nah, just mechanical admin stuff. I deal with a bunch of shitheads and bureaucrats all day. Sometimes a plane, if I'm lucky. You?"

"I work up at UGA." Lee said. "What do you think about all this?"

"What is there to think? The dead are up, walking around, eating people and turning them into more… more of them! I mean Jesus…" Lily said, looking very depressed.

"We need to stick together and get through this." Lee told her.

The topic was over, so Lee asked about Larry looking concerned, "What's wrong with him?"

"He's got a heart condition. He takes nitroglycerin tablets pretty regularly. I've seen a few bad attacks that he couldn't get over and needed to go to the hospital." Lilly explained, worriedly.

"Yeah, that's not really an option right now."

"I'm just trying to keep him relaxed."

"He's got a temper." Lee stated, a bit sourly.

Larry cut in angrily, "Ah, screw you."

Lilly explained for Larry, "Yeah… he doesn't mean it."

"It's just that…"

"Yeah?"

"We've got kids here, families." Lee mumbled quietly.

"He and I are a family."

"I'm just saying some people can't handle a temper like that. Hell, it barely seems like you can."

"It's just his way. Don't make him the reason everything's screwed."

Lilly glanced at Clementine, changing the subject, "Where's her mom?"

"Savannah, I think."

"Oh, you guys aren't together?" Lilly assumed, misunderstanding.

"Oh, no, I'm not her dad. I found her in a house when getting out of Atlanta. She'd been surviving by herself." Lee leaned closer; making sure Clementine was out of earshot, "I think the girl's parents didn't make it."

"Oh." Lilly understood sadly.

"I heard an answering message, they were in Savannah, she was home with a sitter. It wasn't good." Lee explained, grimacing slightly.

"Well, she's lucky to have you." Lilly expressed.

"Was anyone here when you guys got here?" he asked fearfully.

" No, this place was pretty wrecked. We pulled a couple of bodies out of the office."

Lee's eyes widened with horror and shock and his face fell, thinking of his parents.

"Are you ok?" Lilly asked

Lee nodded quickly and uncomfortably, lying, "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Did you know anybody here?"

"Yeah, the owners. They were… we were close."

"I'm sorry. We found an older couple in the office. Dad hauled them out in case they weren't really dead." Lily said. "I'm going to get back to him now."

Lee was about to leave when he felt the energy bar in his pocket and decided to give it to them. "It's not much, but here."

"Are you sure?" Lilly questioned with worry as she took it.

"Yeah. You're under quite a bit of stress."

"Thanks. That's uh… really sweet." She admitted, looking away.

"Don't mention it."

Lee walked around the shelves, found yet another energy bar and then he finally made his way to Kenny and his family. He overheard Katjaa say, "We can't let anything happen to Ducky.", and Kenny replying, "I know, hon." He headed over to Carley, striking up a conversation.

"Hey Lee; you really gave that old man hell."

"Yeah. We got pushed, you know."

"You don't have to tell me; I was ready to tear the man's head off." Kenny began, "Anyway, we, Kat and I, appreciate your support."

Katjaa agreed, "Thank you, Lee."

"Are you guys all right?" Lee asked, concerned

"We're just fine, considering." Kenny slowly nodded.

"How about you, Duck?" Lee asked, with a smile expecting the kid to answer enthusiastically.

But instead Duck remained silent, staring at the floor, obvious still in shock. Katjaa spoke up for him, "We've all been through a lot."

Lee asked, "How's Duck doing?"

Katjaa answered, "He's ok, it was just a shock."

Kenny added, "We're lucky as hell nobody got nabbed on the way in here."

"No kidding." Lee replied, with a relieved smile.

"How's she doing?" Katjaa spoke up, looking over to Clementine. Now _that_ was a question even Lee couldn't answer, at least not accurately.

"She's good, I think." Lee replied, with a shrug.

Kenny commented, "She's a tough one, right there."

"She's just a little girl, Ken." Katjaa scolded

"What were you sayin, Lee, she spent _days_ surviving on her own?"

"That's right." Lee confirmed.

"Not just any little girl can do that."

Lee asked a different question, "What's the plan?"

"Hang tight, I suppose. Seems pretty dangerous out there, so we oughta wait for things to clear up." Kenny replied.

Katjaa questioned, "You said your family was from here in Macon?"

Lee answered sadly, "That's right."

"Where are they? Should we go looking for them?"

This struck a chord in Lee that made him greatly depressed. He checked to make sure no one was listening then looked towards them. "They owned this place. They pulled some bodies out of the office. They're… gone," he said sadly.

"Oh sweetie…" Katjaa said, sympathetically.

"Kat…" Kenny began to say.

"They were good people. I wasn't around much, but yeah they're dead." Lee stated, even more depressed.

"Lee, you got a second?" Kenny quietly mumbled to Lee.

"Sure."

Kenny and Lee walked farther from his family, out of earshot. He began, "Back on Hershel's farm…"

"Yeah?" Lee replied worriedly.

"We didn't even try to save him. That blood is on our hands, you know?" Kenny asked, obviously talking about Shawn.

Lee shrugged. "I happened pretty fast."

"I guess, but I can't stop seeing him in my head."

"We can't kill ourselves over it."

"WE killed that boy. We could've saved him together."

"We did what we could. Bad things happen. We didn't make a choice that killed Shawn. You think you do, when you think back on it. But in a moment? When things are really out of control? You don't have any choice."

"I guess."

Lee gazed at the man in front of him; he decided to console him, "Try to let it go?"

Kenny stared back silently and blankly, before returning to his family's side. He then heard Katjaa say something "We just need to get back to Fort Lauderdale.", to which Kenny replied, "We'll do our best."

Wanting to help Lee took out a energy bar and handed it to them. "It's not much but here, for the boy."

"Aw, thanks Lee. He appreciates it." Kenny smiled.

"That's sweet Lee." Katjaa smiled also.

"Try to get some rest, hon." Lee heard him mention to his wife, "How can I with those things out there?" She replied.

Lee walked over to the shelves where he found yet another battery. He then began to walk back to Carley.

"This battery should fit the radio." Lee said, as he handed her a battery.

"Good, thanks." Carley said, gratefully.

Lee handed her the second one. "And here's another one."

"Should be able to get it to work now." Carley smiled.

Lee paused but it didn't look like she fixed it. "Hey, there. It's still not working?"

"Yeah, I can't figure it out." Carley shook her head.

"Let me have a look at that thing." Lee offered.

"Go ahead," Carley said.

Lee picked up the radio again, tried pressing the power and turning the sound on but still nothing. "Hmm. Nothing," he muttered to himself. He checked the back again, flipped the battery door and saw that they were the wrong way. Boy, this woman _really_ wasn't good with technology. Lee had to hold back a laugh as he turned them back to their proper positions before flipping it back and turning on the power. It then sprung to life.

"You fixed it!" Carley exclaimed while Lee put it down so that they could listen to the voice on the other end of it.

_**As the unknown infection continues to spread unchecked the estimated death toll continues to sky rocket. WABE urges you to stay indoors and avoid any contact with individuals you suspect may have been exposed**_

"The station is ok!" Carley exclaimed, relieved.

_**In the event of a full- My producer is telling me we have to get off the air now.**_

"Steve…" Carley said, slowly and sadly. Then sounds of a struggle and distant screaming are heard as 'Steve' continued to talk

_**WABE wishes you and your loved ones the strength to endure through this crisis. God bless you all. God bless the United States of Amer-**_

The radio then turned off.

"Hey Carley. That radio sign off didn't sound too good. You ok?" Lee asked, concerned.

"I'm fine." Carley stated, though it was clear she wasn't.

"You're really fine? All of your colleagues are probably dead!" Lee pointed out.

Carley then became angry and upset. "You don't think I _know_ that? Of course I'm not freaking fine! God Lee, just… leave me alone."

Lee respected her wishes and walked away towards Doug. Doug was a chubbier fellow with short brown hair combed to the right. He wore a short-sleeved t-shirt with a design of a polar bear or something on it, "Heard or seen anything?"

"Nothing, luckily. Want to step outside, have a look around?" he asked .

"Ha, I'm not suicidal yet." Lee said, a bit amused.

"No, the gate out there is closed. We can hang out in front of the store and be fine."

"Oh, huh." Lee expressed. "Sure, let's go have a look around."

"Cool, and… we'll keep it down. Don't need to bring them back this way with any unnecessary noises." Doug said.

Lee nodded. "Agreed."

They then began to walk out of the Pharmacy together.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

The wooden door opened with a slight as Lee and Doug both exited the pharmacy. Lee looked side to side, careful to not attract any of the zombies' attention. He inspected the scene, "…Jesus."

The messy and destroyed street was littered with many of the things, as the monsters stumbled about pointlessly. Lee and Doug noticed a human body in which several of the monsters were partaking in. Part of the digestive track hung out of the body. Doug backed up, covering his mouth, "I think I'm going to be sick."

"They just…"

"Eat. As far as I can tell, that's all they care about."

"And if one gets you…"

"They eat you, and whatever is left comes back as one of them."

"How the hell…"

"I think it might be more than a couple of days before all this gets sorted out."

"Yeah, I think so too. We better keep it down out here." Lee advised, before crouching to his knees. Doug followed suit. Lee examined the zombie-infested street. He then decided to have a conversation with Doug, with a quiet tone of voice. "How's you end up here?"

"I moved her to live with my Uncle. He does tech stuff so it just made sense." Doug responded, speaking quietly also.

"So your local, you probably knew the owners of this place." Lee said.

"Nah, I've only been here two months and I've most of my time…" Doug began.

"On the computer?" Lee cut in, amused.

"No. Just… doing my own thing. What about you?" he asked.

Lee looked around at his destroyed town. "I grew up here. Been trying to get back home ever since."

As they continued to watch the dead walk all over the place Lee asked him another question.

"What's everyone like in there?" Lee asked, curiously.

"Well… Carley's pretty nice, you know?" Doug asked, blushing.

Lee chuckled a bit, smiling. "Yeah…"

"Lily doesn't take any crud. She's been running things, putting people on watch, stuff like that and her Dad…" Doug said, with a bit of a sour tone.

"Yeah, _that_ guy…" Lee said, also a bit sour.

"He's kind of a jerk. Pardon my French." Doug said.

"Any idea where the Pharmacy Key's might be?" Lee inquired.

"Well they weren't in the Pharmacy when we got her and they weren't on the old couple we pulled out of the office." Doug replied. He noticed that Lee lowered his sadly. "You ok?"

"Yeah…" Lee lied again, which he hated. "So if the key's aren't inside… think they could be out here?"

"We now live in a world where getting up and walking away is actual possibility so…" Doug said, amused.

Lee chuckled again. "Yeah."

Lee continued to look around, before a zombie trapped under a pole caught his eye, "Look at the trapped over there..."

"Better him than us, huh?"

Lee squinted carefully at the walker, getting a better look. It was wearing a blue uniform and had a badge that said, B. Everett. His brother.

His eyes widened, "Oh shoot…"

"What? Do you know that guy?"

"Kind of. He…has a familiar face." Lee said, which was partially true in a sense.

"Ah. You're from around here, huh? Could be anybody, you know? They start rotting and get all chewed up and-"

"Shut up, Doug."

Lee looked down, shaking his head as he thought of his former brother.

Lee continued, "Look at the uniform, though. He could've worked at the drugstore and died with keys in his pocket."

"It would take a lot of effort to make it safe enough to out there and see if he has the keys. If we can somehow prove that he worked here, I think it'd be worth it."

"I'll see what I can find…" Lee said. "Let's head back inside."

"OK." Doug replied quickly.

The two men got to their feet and re-entered the pharmacy.

* * *

After Lee entered he walked past Carley and Clementine till he stopped at a door. The door to the office.

On the door was a sign that read, AUTHORIZED EMPLOYEES ONLY. As well, there was a yellowed piece of paper that had been stuck on underneath the sign. It read, ALIVE INSIDE. Lee glanced sideways, thinking about his family, before reaching for the doorknob.

The door easily opened, and Lee stepped in. Clementine was tailing closely behind, peeking in for a look. Lee's face was filled with sorrow as his eyes took in the scene.

"I can't… I can't think about them in here." He murmured, even though he knew it was impossible to do so.

There was a mattress that had been placed on the metal floor. Covering a large majority of the mattress was a huge and messy blood stain, spilling out onto the tiles too. In the middle of the puddle, was a picture frame that had fallen and broken. There was a first aid kit nearby on a table and several other things.

Clementine swung the door back to its original position and stood by it. There was also an door with a brightly-lit neon sign above it that read "Exit". It had been barricaded by a large, empty shelf tipped over on its side. Books and other things were toppled over. Windows were boarded up. Lee walked closer towards the messy and bloody mattress and inspected it.

"My parents came in here hoping to survive… but it looks like one of them was hurt. I wonder if it was my dad." Lee muttered before chuckled softly as he continued talking to himself, "Trying to be a hero, maybe. Or protect her, at least."

Lee then noticed a photo near it. He knelt down and slipped the photo out of the shattered frame. It was a photo of his family. Lee, dressed in a white dress shirt and black tie, stood the left of his mother and father. His twenty-five year old brother was dressed in a distinctive, blue pharmacy uniform. They were smiling as they posed in front of the family drugstore. Lee smiled fondly at the photo, reminiscing all the good times they, before frowning once he remembered everything he had said and done. He took the photo in his hands and ripping himself out of the picture since he no longer deserved to be part of their family. He put the remainder of the photo back down.

Suddenly, there was a voice behind Lee, shocking him, "Find anything?" It was Carley.

Lee turned to face her, dropped his half of the photo. "It's just a photo of whoever owned this place."

Carley stopped him, "I know who you are. You're Lee Everett. You're a professor at Athens who killed a State Senator who was sleeping with your wife. This is your parents' store; folks around town know the owner's son got himself a life sentence, but I'm a reporter for WABE in Atlanta. I paid attention to that trial. Maybe you're a murderer. But I don't really care. Frankly, that's a skill that might come in handy."

"Hmmph." Lee responded, shaking his head.

"Did you tell anyone out there who you were, or that you were tied to this place?"

"No. I've been sticking to first names for a reason."

Carley shook her head and stared at Lee, "You seem like an ok guy, and the last thing we need is drama out there. You've got this little girl to take care of, and… look, don't make me wrong on this."

Lee stepped forward, towering over the reporter, with a shadow over him. "I don't plan to."

"Good. Because if this lasts longer than a few days and you're a detriment to the group, then we'd have a problem."

"I hear you."

"I'll just keep it to myself."

"Thanks." Lee smiled, gratefully. He had a feeling he could trust this woman.

Carley looked away, embarrassed, before looking back up with a small smile, "Don't worry about it."

She turned and exited through the door and back into the pharmacy. Then, he remembered Clementine and headed to her.

"Have you heard from Glenn?" he asked.

"Not in a little while," she responded.

"Everyone out there seem all right to you?"

"Yeah, well, maybe not the sick guy." Clementine admitted.

"Yeah. We'll keep an eye on him."

"There was that thing in the bathroom. It tried to get me."

"I know.'

"But you stopped it."

Lee smiled proudly, "Yeah, I did."

"Can you do that more?" Clementine asked, hesitantly and hopefully.

"Well, I'm not going to go looking for them."

"I mean get the dangerous ones."

"I'm going to try."

"Good."

"I'm going to keep looking around."

Clementine bobbed her head, "Ok."

Lee went over to the door where the pharmacy's medicine would be kept. There was a desk and wooden pallet that had been pushed up against it.

As he lifted it off, that was a slight clang as a wooden stick fell over to Lee's feet. Clementine turned her head at the sound of it and raised a brow as Lee picked it up, smiling fondly at it.

"What's that?" Clementine inquired curiously.

"This was my dad's cane. He'd zip around here on it from time to time."

"Was he sick?" Clem asked, concerned.

"Nah, he was ok. I actually saw him whoop shoplifters with it. This cane's protected this place better than any guard dog ever could." Lee explained with a smile, as he tenderly placed the cane next to the pallet, "Plus he knew how to make it look cool. Like you, with your hat."

"My dad gave it to me."

"See, Dads' are smart like that." Lee stated, and then Clementine took her place by the door once again.

Lee moved back to the desk, "Better get this door clear, huh?"

"Can I help?"

"Sure." Lee said, smiling down at the girl.

The pair positioned themselves over the desk, "Here we go. Watch your fingers in the drawers."

They pulled the desk back; Lee asked Clementine, "How are you doing?"

"Yeah. It's not that heavy."

"How about with everything outside?"

"It's not good" She replied, looking down.

"No, it's not."

"But I think it'll be ok."

Lee smiled, "Ok, here we go."

"Ugh…grrr…ugh." Clementine grunted, as she pulled the desk back with all her strength.

She turned to Lee as he pivoted the desk, "Do you have kids?"

"No."

"You don't have a family?"

Lee hid his annoyance of her curiosity. "Let's just move this thing," he said, hastily.

"Oh, sorry…" Clementine said, sadly.

"Don't worry about it." Lee told her. "All right, a little further."

The two of them turned the desk to face the wall. Lee was about to continue pushing when Clementine stopped him, "Why don't you want to talk about your family? Do they like…hate you?"

Lee closed his eyes and looked down. "I wouldn't blame them."

"Why? Did you fight? I fight with my Mom sometimes." Clementine said.

Lee got to his knees, looking straight into her eyes, "Look, my family is gone and I just wish things would've been different."

"Yeah."

"I'm not a bad guy, ok? Things happened and we didn't talk much after that."

"My parents don't talk to me when I get in trouble."

"I can relate."

This seemed to satisfy Clem's curiosity. They then proceed to push the door farther back, until it connected with the wall.

"OWW!' Clementine yelped, jumping back. Lee reflexively turned to her. Clementine held her right finger, staring at it. There was a cut on it that immediately began to bleed.

"Are you ok?" Lee asked, worry creasing his forehead.

"I hurt my finger."

"Is it bleeding?"

"A little."

Lee gripped her gently by the waist and hoisted her up onto the desktop where he set her down, "I'll find you a bandage."

Lee noticed a first aid kit nearby and walked towards it.

Lee flipped open the lid, revealing its contents. He searched around before plucking out a small band-aid. He went back to Clementine's side, taking out the band-aid, "Let's have a look at that finger."

He touched her bleeding finger, wiggling it slightly, "Ow."

"It hurt." Clementine expressed, wincing.

"Let's see if we can do something about it." Lee replied, reaching for the band-aid, "Let's get this cut covered up."

"Yes, please."

Lee carefully wrapped the bandage around her cut and held her small hands tenderly. When he was done, she smiled down at him, before it faded out to a frown. "Lee?"

"Yeah?"

"What if my parents come home and I'm not there?"

Lee highly doubted they'd come home, after what he heard on the answering machine and if they are still alive he also doubted they'd come straight home, what with everything going on.

"I don't think they will. They'd want you to be _safe_. We'll find them if we can." Lee assured her.

"I've got my walkie-talkie in case they try that way."

"Stay close to me until then, ok?"

She nodded.

Lee curiously opened the drawer to the left of Clementine who perched on top of the desk. Inside the drawer were a few pencils and a stack of paper. There was also a television remote that Lee grabbed.

_"It's the remote to my dad's TV." Lee muttered, before closing the drawer._

Lee aimed the remote towards the TV and switched it on. There was no signal.

"That's what I figured." He mumbled again.

He switched it back off. Having nothing else to do in the room and with the door still locked, he headed towards the door that lead back the others.

He turned to Clementine, "Want to head back into the drugstore with me?"

"Ok." Clementine said after getting off

Lee began to turn to the door when her small voice interrupted, holding her arms together, "Lee?"

"Yeah?"

"You're not _bad_, right?" She questioned worriedly.

"I…uh, why are you asking me that?"

"That lady said you killed someone. Was that because he was one of the things trying to eat you?" Her eyes and tone hesitant.

Lee wondered what you should say when answering a question like this, but since he couldn't lie to her he decided to tell her the truth. "No. He wasn't."

"Oh. Was he bad?" Clementine asked, slowly and nervously.

Lee nodded. "He was."

Lee then reached for the door knob, exiting the office and back into the drugstore.

* * *

Once they arrived back in the drugstore, Lee walked over to Clementine to check on her.

"Hey there." Lee said, bending down to her height again.

"Hi."

"How's your finger, Clem?" Lee asked.

"Good. It doesn't hurt so much anymore." Clementine said.

"Good." Lee smiled. "I know I'm not your Dad but if you need anything, I'm your guy, ok?"

"Ok, same." Clementine nodded.

Lee smiled amused. "You're my guy?"

"No… you know." Clementine said, slowly. She smiled despite her mistake, indicating that she thought it was amusing too.

"We're both gonna take care of each other." Lee said.

"Yeah." Clementine agreed.

"We'll sit tight," he told her.

"Ok." Clementine said, looking up with a small smile again. Suddenly, a loud, anxious voice sounded from Clementine's walkie-talkie.

* * *

**Author's Note: Apologizes for some of the lines, it was hard for me to remember them all, especially the ones I picked that no one else did, you know?**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

_**Hey there, this is Glenn and uh, I'm kinda in a jam here. Uh, little girl, if you're there, can you put your daddy on the phone? Or on the talkie, or whatever?**_

Clementine handed it to Lee.

"This is Lee, what's up?" Lee asked, worry touching his features.

_**So… I'm down at the motor inn and, well, I-I'm stuck.**_

"Stuck?"

Glenn then starting whispering,

_**Yeah, I, uh, saw a chance to get some supplies for the group and a bunch of the roaming ones got the jump on me. I'm hiding over here but they won't leave.**_

Kenny asked, putting his hands on his waist, "What's up?"

"Glenn's trapped down at the motor inn." Lee answered, before talking to Glenn again, "Hey Glenn, we're gonna talk it over and send a group to come get you, all right?"

_**Phew, awesome. I'll sit tight 'till then.**_

"Sounds good." Lee agreed, before the connection between the two walkie talkies cut off. He turned to Clementine, "I'm going to hold onto this until we get Glenn back, ok? I'll take good care of it."

Kenny cut in, "What do you think?"

Lee turned to him. "I think Doug's not great around zombies, and you've got your family here. I'll take Carley and her dead-eye down to the motor-inn, get Glenn, and get back here as fast as I can."

"If that's what you want to do…"

"Somebody's got to."

Carley spoke up, "Yeah, I'm in."

"Good. It doesn't sound too bad there right now."

"Let me know as soon as you want to head out. I could use a jog."

Lee quickly walked over to Carley, they greeted each other without a word.

"You ready to head out?"

"You got it. You?"

"Yeah."

"Let's go."

The two of them headed out the alley exit which was in the office and out onto the streets of Macon. Lee knew his way around Macon, so he led Carley to the motor-inn that Glenn was supposedly talking about. It didn't take too long to reach it. As they carefully approached the motor-inn, there was a loud grumbling.

"Shoot! Get down!" They hid as one of those things dressed in a varsity jacket stood and turned their way. Fortunately, it didn't pursue them, as it silently stalked away, they breathed a sigh of relief. Lee and Carley peeked up from under their hiding spot; there were several of those monsters in the lot. Suddenly, there was a squeaking as the door to an ice-machine next to a vending-machine opened slightly and closed again.

"Did you see that?" Carley asked anxiously, hoping it was just a trick of the eye.

"Sure did."

The door continued to squeak open and close.

"Be ready to shoot." Lee advised, as Carley aimed her gun towards it. The door finally propped over, and Glenn emerged, climbing out as soon as he saw them.

"GUYS! Oh man, I'm glad you're here," he said relieved.

"Jesus, Glenn!" Carley scolded, shaking her head.

He hopped over the short brick wall and joined his comrades.

"All right, that wasn't so hard." Lee said, just as relieved.

"Can we get out of here before any of these things notice us?" Carley requested, impatiently.

"Not yet. There's a survivor trapped up there." Glenn denied, pointing up to a door next to the balcony. There were two monsters pounding against the door and wall, trying to get in.

"No way, we gotta go. NOW." Carley disagreed.

"LISTEN. I was out here looking for gas. And then, up there in the corner room, I heard crying coming from inside." explained Glenn, quietly.

"Who is it?" Lee asked, curiously.

"It's a girl. We talked and she got frightened. I was trying to get in and help her and she started yelling and saying I was bitten. I tried to convince her I wasn't and that's when all of these guys came out of the forest. A couple almost got me and I ended up hiding in the ice-machine."

"Lucky you; now let's go!" Carley insisted.

"We can't just leave her."

"Darn right we can't.: said Lee, supporting Glenn's side.

Carley angrily whispered back, "You guys are suicidal. Over a girl!"

Glenn squinted at her, "I'm saving her, with our without you."

Lee agreed, "Think about if it was you."

"Fine. Let's go save Glenn's damsel in distress." Carley sighed.

The trio examined the scene; the two monsters were still busy pounding away at the survivor's door. In the motor-inn lot, there was a RV, and a red car. By the RV, there was a monster absently whacking at a wall next to one of the room doors that was boarded up. Next to the red car's wheel, was a pathetic, but still dangerous monster just laying there. There was also a monster in the middle of its meal that was closest to the group. They stealthily made their way behind the next brick wall.

Lee instructed, "Ok, this is the plan. We don't know how hard it's going to be to get her out of that room."

Glenn added, "Yeah, it's boarded up."

"So we have to kill every one of them in here."

As if on cue, Carley cocked her gun. But Lee stopped her, "QUIETLY. Noise attracts these things. Now let's have a look around."

Lee peeked over to the left side of the wall, noticing a thin pillow on the ground. He reached for it and took it.

"Good luck smothering them to death…" Carley said, sarcastically.

"That's not really what I have in mind."

Lee looked over to the right, in the direction of the balcony. He noticed a truck near the balcony. Lee and the others silently began to make their way there, keeping their heads down. They made it safely, and Lee went up to examine the window, wondering if there was anything useful inside. Inside was a green awl. He lowered his head and noticed a monster sitting beside a red car. Lee then got an idea to get rid of that '_fella_' near the car. He turned to Carley, "Get out your gun."

"But the noise…"

"Just follow my lead; stay right behind me."

Lee and Carley walked up to the zombie, who began to groan as he noticed them. As it began to attack, Lee shoved the pillow right into the thing's face, preventing it from moving forward. Carley jammed her pistol right into the pillow, pointing where the head would be and pulled the trigger. The pillow softened the noise of the bullet and the threat was eliminated. Glenn couldn't resist commenting on it, "That was sick!"

The zombies at the top of the balcony turned their heads, but resumed their attack on the door. It looked like they would have to be a little more quieter or else they would attract their attention for more than a few seconds.

They crouched under the red car. The vehicle's front wheels were balanced on ramps. Lee tried to push the car off its ramps but it wouldn't budge a bit. He opened the car door and poked his head inside. There was a metal object on the driver's seat, which Lee pocketed. Next, he noticed the car's gear shift. He unlocked it. Lee closed the car's door and showed the object he had found to Glenn, "It's uh, a, sparky thing."

"Sparkplug. You should hold onto that, could come in handy."

After resuming his position, Lee began to push the car in the direction of the fat zombie attacking the wall. It turned around at the sound of the vehicle inching its way closer and closer to it. It didn't resist however, and the car smashed into it, trapping it against the wall.

"That was awesome!" Glenn expressed.

No longer having the option of hiding behind the red car, they retreated back to the pickup. Lee returned to the window, he pulled out the sparkplug and was about to jam it into the glass when Glenn stopped him.

"Wait-" Glenn said, gesturing to hand him the thing, "Let me see the sparkplug."

Lee handed it to him, and he proceeded to place the sparkplug on the cement ground. "The porcelain inside these things turns car windows to tissue paper." He stomped on it, revealing tiny bits of metal. Glenn picked a piece up and placed it carefully in the palm of Lee's hand.

Lee held the porcelain in his hand and proceeded to hit the window, shattering it instantly. The loud sudden noise unsettled the zombies above more than muffled gunshot and vehicle crash. Luckily, they did not pursue them and continued on to their business. Lee reached into the window, careful to not prick himself on the glass. He plucked the awl from its place and showed it to Glenn.

"That could scramble a brain pretty good." Glenn commented.

"That's exactly what I was thinking."

They made their way back to their original starting position. He signaled to Glenn to follow him to the RV. They quietly snuck behind the occupied monster. When they reached the front of the RV, Lee looked over to the side of the RV. There was only one of those things now, it just stared blankly into the side of the RV.

He whistled at it, attracting its attention. The zombie slowly staggered towards the source of the sound. As soon as it stumbled close enough, Lee jumped in front of it and swung the pick. The pick hit the zombie in the chest before Lee pulled it out and lunged for its face. Lee pulled the pick out, the zombie sliding off.

From behind him, Glenn was occupied with distracting the previously eating zombie who had also heard the whistle. He picked up a large wooden plank and whacked it in the head. He quickly dropped it out of fear though.

"Lee! Get him!" Glenn cried, before falling over.

Lee carefully aimed his awl before jumping forward and nailing the zombie directly in its forehead, piercing its brain, and ending its days as one of the Living Dead.

"Nice!" Glenn thanked him, after he got back up.

"Thanks for having my back."

"For sure!"

The two of them snuck around the side of the RV, Carley following from behind. They went up to the monster trapped from behind the back of the red vehicle. It was trying to get unstuck. Next to the struggling, fat zombie, there was a wonderful fire axe. That would definitely come in handy. Trapping the zombie wouldn't be sufficient enough, Lee had to kill it to so he could get the axe. He thrust the awl deep into the huge zombie's head, where the awl found its resting place. The awl was jammed even deeper into his head and pierced through the back of his head when he fell over onto the hood over the car.

Glenn walked over and saw the absence of the tool Lee used previously, "Dude, where'd your weapon go?"

"Into that ice-pick sized hole."

"Haha, holy cow." Glenn snickered, impressed, "It's cool, now we've got THIS."

Glenn pointed to the fireman's axe they now possessed.

"Are you two done?" Carly said, exasperatedly obviously annoyed by the two of them being well… boys.

Lee reached for the axe, pulling it off its supports. He turned and looked at the zombies on the balcony. "Two more."

Glenn looked over, "That should help."

They walked over to the base of the balcony stairs. Lee turned, "Why don't you guys lag behind; just in case this goes to hell."

Carley agreed, "Ok. We'll be right behind you."

Glenn nodded.

Lee slowly stepped up the stairs, turned down the corner, and began to slowly approach the two zombies. As he got closer, the seemingly female one turned and faced his away, detecting him. She rotated and reached her arms out towards Lee, staggering to him. He swung the axe, hitting it in the side of its head, killing it. The other male zombie, hearing the clamor, also began to approach Lee. Lee curved the fire axe from the side hard, slicing straight through the fiend's head and hitting the wall on the opposite side. "Rad." Glenn called it.

Lee and the others stood in front of the door. It was only then that Lee noticed the corroded walls, he wondered if it had only started corroding when the apocalypse began or had it been a while. The door had been barricaded by one long, thick piece of wood that had been hammered down, locking the door.

He went up to the door, placing his left hand on the surface and knocking with his other. "Hello in there? We're here to help."

There was a sorrowful voice that responded, "Please, just go away!"

Carley suggested, "Let's go, guys."

"In a minute." Lee replied, before speaking through the door again, "If you open up, we can take you somewhere safer. We've got a group in town."

"No, no, no. Please, no!"

Glenn interrupted, "She's in trouble!"

"Miss! We're coming in!" Lee called out.

Lee brought the axe down, splitting the board off. He reached for the handle, locked. Then, he started kicking his foot at the door. Suddenly, the woman's voice cried out, "Stop, just stop. I'm coming out."

The door unlocked and slowly opened, a ragged, pale, young woman who looked to be about a year older then Glenn dressed in pink exited the room. Lee and the others realized she had injured, blood dripping from the recent wound.

"You're hurt." Lee stated in disbelief and sadness.

"It's too late for that." She continued, showing the full extent of her injury.

Carley stated the obvious, "Guys, she's been bitten."

Lee and Glenn flinched, "What?!" Glenn exclaimed.

The stranger yelled sadly, "I told you. I said go away, I'm bit. But you wouldn't just leave."

Lee spoke, "Let's calm down. You could be fine."

"I won't be fine. My boyfriend was bitten. You get sick and you die and you come back and you kill anything you can find," she said, distressed

"You have a boyfriend?" Glenn said down, looking down with true remorse.

"GLENN." Carley shushed, annoyed

The woman ranted, "I don't want that. It's not Christian. Please, just leave me, please go."

Lee relented, "Ok, we'll leave. Just try to take care of yourself, for whatever time you have left."

The woman looked down, noticing Carley's gun. Her voice taking a persuasive tone. "You have a gun."

"So?" Carley questioned.

"Can I borrow it?" She slowly requested.

"What do you mean 'borrow'"? Carley questioned, not liking where this was going.

"Give it to me. I can just, you know, end this and then – then there's no problem."

Lee exclaimed, "Whoa, whoa, whoa…"

"PLEASE. I don't want to be one of them. They're…they're…satanic." she pleaded. She obviously sounded Christian. Just like Lee, and as a Christian man he couldn't let this woman take her own life like this.

"We can't let you do that to yourself." Lee told her.

"Then do it for me!" The woman begged.

"We need to get going." Carley reminded them.

Her pleading became hysterical. "Give it to me, PLEASE!"

Glenn anxiously stated, "This is crazy!"

Carley ordered softly, "Please, step back."

"It's just two seconds, just one bullet, and I can be with my family, and it'll all be fine." The woman insisted, slowly stepping closer to Carley.

Lee expressed, "Miss…"

"Back up!" Carley shouted.

The woman lunged at Carley's weapon, "PLEASE!" Carley resisted, while being pushed back by the woman. Suddenly, there was a loud splitting noise as the supports and foundation of the balcony began to topple. The gun was flung away and the balcony hit the ground with a deafening crash. Lee got to his feet. Carley looked around for her misplaced weapon when she saw it. The woman was in the process in picking up the gun.

Lee tried to calm her down, "Whoa, take it easy. We just want to help."

The woman slowly stepped back from Lee and the others, "You can't," she said hopelessly as she placed the barrel of the gun to her temple, her hand shaking.

"Miss, just relax now…you need to think this through…we'll find you a doctor," Lee began softly, "It'll be ok, let's all just….No, no, no, no, NO!" Lee cried as the woman pulled the trigger, sending the bullet flying through her brain. There was a deafening bang and a thump as the woman's body collapsed onto the ground.

The gun lay discarded by the stranger's bloody corpse. Glenn slowly made his way towards it, bending over to pick it up. His hands were shaking as he felt the barrel of the gun, still warm. Glenn suddenly covered his mouth with his hand and heaved onto the ground. He wiped his mouth, quietly managing to muster, "Let's get out of here."

Suddenly, there was rustling of footsteps and leaves as zombies began to emerge from the woods. "Shoot!" Lee silently cursed.

"Here they come!" Glenn exclaimed, as the group quickly bolted out of there and into his pizza delivery car, "Get in!"

Glenn slammed the accelerator, driving off into the night, losing the zombies.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

The crew safely made it back to the pharmacy, Kenny quickly asked Lee as soon as he saw them, "Everyone all right?"

"Yeah. We had some close calls but Glenn is fine, and… well, yeah… we're ok."

Glenn spoke up softly, looking down, what happened with the girl was really effecting him. "I've got a few cans of gas for your pickup in the trunk of my car."

"Good to hear it."

Carley stepped into the conversation, "And things back here?"

"Quiet." Kenny explained, "Our 'friend' is still in and out over there. He won't survive anymore stress."

Lee stated, "The next order of business is getting those pills out of the pharmacy."

Kenny nodded, before returning to his place by his family while Lee walked over to Glenn, who was leaning against the wall, to check up on him

"How are you doing, Glenn?"

"You know." Glenn shrugged.

"Back at the motor-inn…"

"How can it be that bad so fast?"

"You know, when things are taken away, people do crazy shit."

"I guess, but that's not me. I'm not giving up, not for anything."

"Good, man. Good."

"I guess she really wanted that gun…"

"Seems like."

"Why didn't you tell Carley to just give it to her?"

"Would YOU have given it to her?" Lee questioned.

"No way." Glenn shook his head.

"Then you know why." Lee stated, before starting a different topic. "What's your next move"

"I don't know. I mean, you guys seem ok." He replied with a grin.

"What about your family?"

His face fell, "Yeah, I…I…"

"Forget it, man. That's your business."

"I hate feeling like I can't do anything."

"I know the feeling, man." Lee said. "Do you know the combination for the lock on the gate outside?"

"Why?!" Glenn demanded, with a raised brow.

"Oh you know, I thought I'd go stretch my legs." Lee replied jokingly.

"You're probably better off breaking it if you have to."

"Try to get some rest."

"Ha, yeah right."

Lee walked away from Glenn and walked over to Doug.

"How are we doing?"

"Good, want to go have a look around outside?"

Lee agreed, and the duo once again exited the building.

* * *

They crouched down. Lee then looked at his fallen undead brother and after a moment of sadness he remembered the photo he had found on the bloody bedding. "That guy over there has the keys."

"How can you be sure?"

Lee pulled out the photo, offering it to Doug. "I found this in the office. That boy in the photo worked here. The keys being on him is as good a bet as we can make."

"Yeah, I agree. We just need to figure out how to get out there and get them." Doug began, "You wouldn't need long, right?"

"Nah, just a few seconds."

Lee then took out his Dad's remote and held it to Doug.

"What do you know about this?" Lee asked.

Doug looked at the remote. "It's just a universal remote, no different than the ones we used to sell back when I was an AV. Man I miss my robots…" Doug mused a bit strangely.

"You're a strange guy Doug." Lee told him.

Doug nodded. "I know," he said. Well, well, apparently Lee wasn't wrong about him. He then noticed the TV store across the street with all the turned off TV's and got an idea. If they were able to turn those on they would be able to distract the dead outside. He held out the remote to Doug again.

"Think you can do anything with this?"

"You know what I COULD do…"

"What's that?" Lee asked as Doug took the remote, stood up and began fiddling with the buttons.

"It's universal; I could program it to work with those TVs across the street. Let's just hope the power is still on."

"You can just do that?" Lee inquired, impressed.

"I memorized all the codes when I was in AV. Let's try."

Doug stuck his hand out through the bars, aiming the remote at the store. The televisions across the street flickered on brightly. On the screens were static.

Lee was even more impressed with Doug and his technical skills, "Well done, Doug. All that dork nonsense might save a life."

"Who's to say it already hasn't?" Doug remarked as he bent down again.

The sound of the static from the televisions attracted the attention of some of the walkers. "That got a few of them to take notice…" Doug voiced.

"But not enough." Lee stated, as the walkers resumed to absently stumble about.

Lee then took note of the combination lock that had saved all of their lives. He got to his feet, took out his fire axe, lined up his shot and cut the lock off.

"Awesome!" Doug commented, looking at Lee's handiwork, "Now to distract those things…carefully."

Lee then quietly pushed the gate open a bit. Doug looked worried. He noticed a brick, and reached for it. Lee carefully inched his way through the gate and a bit out. He tossed the brick far across the street, smashing into the television store's windows and shattering them. The sound of the store's televisions and alarms attracted the horde, as they gathered to whack them.

Lee looked over to Doug, "Now's the time."

"Be careful." Doug warned, as Lee left the safety of the metal gates out into the now empty street.

"Keep an eye out, will ya?"

Lee crossed the street over to his trapped brother. The walker looked up in acknowledgment as it quietly groaned at him. Then, its groans became louder as he tried to grab Lee. Lee bent down a safe distance from it. He wondered if it even remembered him at all, if any bit of his younger brother was still in there. Lee knew he was just being idealistic and stupidly hopeful, but that was just the kind of person he was.

"Hey, bud. I don't know what happened to mom and dad. But I know… if you were there, you would've died for them, so…uh… Yeah. I'm going to assume that's what happened," he said to his undead brother, believing he could hear him.

Doug stupidly called towards Lee, "Did you find them yet?!"

"Give me a second." Lee snapped back.

Lee closed his eyes and looked down feeling guilty, if he had just been there, if hadn't screwed up so bad he could have been there. Maybe he could he have saved them. Maybe… "I'm sorry, man. I'm sorry I wasn't here. But knowing you were… to take care of them, through all of it. That helped."

Lee got to his feet, reluctantly raising the axe. He brought the axe down onto its neck, splaying blood. The walker stopped moving, as Lee pulled up and gazed down sadly at his former brother. Suddenly the walker reached for his legs, Lee quickly jumped back. He raised the axe again, bringing the axe down again, cutting its neck again. It snarled in protest. Lee swung the axe yet again, still not killing it. He brought it down, but it just wouldn't cut through. He was about to swing down at his brother's neck again when the thing shifted and moved its head into the axe's pathway, effectively killing it, though part of himself died as well, but he just hated seeing his brother like that, so it had to be done, whether he liked it or not.

"Ugh…God…" Lee groaned, reaching into the front pocket of his brothers corpse. He pulled out the pharmacy keys, "There we go."

He got to his feet, waving the keys at Doug, indicating that he now had them.

Doug smiled, and slowly turned towards the television store. "HOLY CRAP!" He exclaimed, "RUN!"

The walkers were beginning to lose interest in the televisions and began turning their way, staggering with their arms out towards them. Lee bolted back down the crosswalk, towards the pharmacy. Doug closed the metal gates as best as he could. Then, they ran back into the store.

* * *

Once inside, Doug braced himself against the doors, "Man, that was close."

"But we did it, that's all that matters."

Doug regained his posture, though he did notice the sad look on Lee's face but didn't say anything about it. Lee headed over to where Lilly and Larry were, "I've got the keys."

"Great! God, you're amazing. Let's get in there."

Lilly and Lee entered the office, approaching the medicine room's door. He inserted the key into the lock, turning the handle. The door opened without a fight. They took a few steps into the brightly-lit room when suddenly; the store's alarm went off.

"Oh no…" Lily groaned.

"Shoot." Lee grumbled, before rushing into the room.

"We gotta hurry!" Lilly ordered, following behind, looking for the much-needed medicine while the alarm continued to blare.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

Outside the drug store the sudden clamor of the bell raised the dead, luring the horde towards the entrance of the pharmacy. Pretty soon all the monsters were gathered all around the gates and around the store, trying very hard to break the gates and boarded windows. It was pretty obvious to anyone that these freaks seriously wanted in.

Inside everyone was rushing around and gathering their things so that they could escape.

Katjaa spoke softly, gathering her bearings, "Duck, c'mon baby, time to go."

Kenny yelled at the top of his lungs, "I'm gonna get the truck pulled up 'round back."

Lilly advised, helping her father to his feet, "Do it fast. I've got to get my dad out of here."

"I don't plan on dilly-dallying." Kenny retorted, he turned to his family, "Honey, take Duck into the office and barricade the living hell out of the door behind me. Glenn, when you hear me honking in the alley, start getting people out of here."

"You got it."

"Doug, Carley and Lee, you guys make sure our defenses stay up 'til then. And Lee, I better take that axe, in case I run into any of them on the way to my truck."

"Here you go." Lee called, tossing the weapon towards Kenny.

Suddenly there was a metal crashing outside the doors

"Guys, that door's not locked anymore!" Doug declared

"Shoot. You three get on it! I'll get back as fast as I can!"

Doug, Carley, and Glenn dashed towards the wooden doors, bracing themselves against the wild pounding and pushing

Lee warned Clementine, "Stay away from the windows."

As Lee made his way to help his comrades at the door, he heard Katjaa cry out, "Glenn, we need your help! Please hurry!" Lee quickly ran to the door, taking Glenn's place in the middle. There was a crashing of glass as walkers threw blow after blow into the walls and bookcases.

Doug turned to Lee, still pushing back the doors, "Hey, Lee… if we don't make it through this, you should know that… I think you're a great guy."

"We WILL make it through this." Lee yelled back. There was no way anyone was dying on his watch again or giving him brave last words.

Carley began, "Doug, if we don't make it through this, you should know—"

Suddenly the doors pushed Lee back, as the walkers' attack became more furious. Lee quickly regained his place at the door, struggling to push the doors back into place.

"I should know WHAT?" Doug shouted.

"Huh?!" expressed Carley.

"You said I should know—"

Suddenly, the exchange was once again interrupted as the bookcase to the left of the front doors collapsed. Walkers poured in. Carley scowled, "On it."

"Are you sure?" Lee questioned.

"Oh, snap!" She exclaimed, taking her gun out.

"Wha…? Oh, snap!| realized Lee, as the walkers slowly reached for Doug. Luckily, Carley shot the closest ones.

"Ok then…" Lee relented, before spotting Clementine, "Clementine! Can you look for something in-between the handles! Something real strong, ok?!"

"Ok!" She nodded, before rushing off.

The doors threatened to push open, but Lee forced them back, "CLEMENTINE! Did you find anything?!" he hollered.

"Nothing! Oh wait!" She cried, an idea forming in her head.

There were more crashes of glass as they shattered, Doug exclaimed, "That window is SCREWED!"

Lee turned to him, "GO!"

Doug hesitated for a second, before nodding and heading to defend the other window.

Without his comrades to help, the doors pushed open again. Lee had to try even harder this time to force the walkers out. He shoved his back against the handles again. Clementine ran up to him, "I found something!" She handed him a stick that he recognized, it was his dad's cane. That would definitely work. Without any second thoughts, Lee grasped it and slid the cane between the handles. That would hold for a while, hopefully a long while.

"Ahhhh! Get off, GET OFF. GET IT OFF ME!" Doug yelped, as the walkers were threatening to pull him through the window any second.

"SHOOT! I'm out! I'm OUT! LEE! Help! Ammo! In my purse!" Carley shrieked, as a walker gripped her ankle, pulling her closer and closer as she tried to get the extra ammo in her said purse.

The scene seemed to slow down for Lee, as Clementine fearfully looked back and forth between their comrades as they both needed aid. Lee turned to Carley, before looking back to Doug. He was running out of time and it looked like he had only enough to save one, just like what happened with Shawn and Duck. While he hated leaving Doug Lee still dashed towards Carley's purse. He rummaged through it, before pulling out a clip and tossing it to Carley. Carley quickly reloaded her gun and shot the gaining walkers.

"Ah, no! GET 'EM OFF ME!" Doug cried, before wooden boards covering up the window split open and the walkers dragged him through, "AHHHHHHHH!"

Doug kicked his legs, struggling to get out of their grip. They pulled him straight out the window, kicking and screaming, before tearing him to shreds as they devoured him. Clementine was horrified. His pleads echoed through Lee's mind. Carley gagged at the noise, "Oh my God…" Before clenching her teeth and firing off a few more shots.

Kenny burst through the office door, axe in hand. "Let's GO!"

Carley dashed for the door, "They got Doug… They…they…" she absently expressed.

"It doesn't matter, you've gotta MOVE." Larry told her.

Clementine also ran for the door, before screaming as a walker with a screwdriver in its back grabbed her legs, and knocked her down. She screamed loudly. Lee angrily rushed at it, stomping on its back several times. It finally let go and Clementine scrambled to her feet in a daze. Lee stepped over the zombie, before frantically running towards the door. Larry held the door open as Clementine stood behind him.

Lee fearfully ran from the walker, before feeling a firm hand placed onto his chest, stopping him. It was Larry. Larry gave Lee a dirty look, before screaming at him, "You're not coming with us, you son of a jackal!" He threw a blow towards Lee's face, knocking him to the cold floor.

"No!" Clementine cried, as Larry forcibly guided her away, although Lee couldn't really see it.

Lee's vision blurred when he collapsed onto the floor. Lee's hand naturally rubbed his area of collision. He looked towards the door, the endless darkness inside. He could also hear the walker's groaning getting closer and closer, pretty soon it would reach him in no time. Suddenly, a figure appeared in the door. As Lee's vision settled, he realized it was Kenny! Kenny rushed to him, and then all of sudden raised his axe at Lee. Lee instinctively raised his hand, as if it would lessen the blow. Kenny brought the axe down, hitting not Lee, but the familiar walker he had stomped on before.

Kenny reached his hand out towards Lee, "I'm not letting somebody else get eaten today."

Lee gratefully accepted the hand.

"Especially a good friend." Kenny continued, pulling Lee to his feet and towards the door. Lee turned, the pharmacy was lost; walkers poured in from all sides as they shuffled uncomfortably closer towards them. Lee quickly reached for the handle and slammed it shut but not before looking at his parent's now infested store with a sad look.

* * *

After he group retreated from the lost pharmacy, they headed their way towards the motor-inn that Glenn had gathered the gas from. The big yellow sign that hung above the inn read, "Travelier MOTEL." It was shaped like an arrow. Lilly dragged the dead corpses, including the dead stranger known as Irene, into a large, lumpy pile. She stared disgustingly at her hands, before wiping them against the sides of her jeans. Katjaa and Kenny were rummaging through boxes on the truck of their pick-up.

Duck noticed Clementine walking away from the disgusting sight, "Oh man, Clementine! It was so awesome!" he said as he walked over and started talking to her. He seemed to have snapped out his shocked state.

Glenn was intently listening to the radio in his delivery vehicle. Lee was gazing sadly at his last remaining piece of his family. Sudden shotgun blasts broke the silence, attracting Lee's attention. Accompanied with these shots were piercing screams. Lee looked out into the distance, before the sounds disappeared. He looked back towards his group, he now knew that he had to protect these people no matter what, or else they'll end up like his family. Lee walked towards Glenn, "Hey Glenn."

Glenn raised a hand to stop him, concentrating on the broadcast. The radio was reporting on the status of major cities. Atlanta was in the middle of a stage 9 catastrophe. Glenn looked down, thinking. He looked back up to Lee, "I think I need to go."

Lilly turned her head, picking up on what he had said. She slowly began to make her way to them, presumably to talk him out of it.

"To Atlanta?" Lee questioned, a bit surprised.

He nodded, "Yeah… I got friends there, and I just can't stay here knowing that they could be trapped in that city."

"It sounds like nobody knows what's happening there. When we left a few days ago it could've gone either way."

"I got to take my chances"

Lee noticed Lilly, whose eyes suggested stopping him. But he advised her not to intervene with a shake of his hand. She looked down, frowning, before walking away. Part of Lee didn't want Glenn to leave but he also greatly wanted Glenn to find his friends, hopefully he'd have more luck finding his loved ones then he did.

"Find your friends and be safe." Lee spoke.

Glenn smiled gratefully. "Thanks Lee, that means a lot. I don't meant to abandon you all, but this seems like an okay setup, and I'm sure things will be back to normal around here in no time."

"Let's hope." Lee said.

"You guys be safe."

"We'll try."

Glenn sadly glanced up at the balcony where Carley, he, Lee, and that woman had toppled from. He remained silent and motionless, before hopping into his vehicle, turning it on, and driving off down the road. Lee then went over to Kenny and his family, "Hey Ken."

"Close call back there."

"Thanks for picking me up." Lee expressed, shaking Kenny's hand.

"No problem. We have to take care of each other."

"Yeah, we do." Lee smiled.

"Hey, about Clementine."

"Yeah?"

"Earlier I said there's some stuff out there that might screw up a precious little girl like her."

Lee nodded, he remembered him talkin about it on the way over here. "You did."

"Well I still think that's true. But after what I saw today, I think, between you taking care of her and her taking care of herself, you two are going to be just fine." Kenny grinned.

"Thanks, Kenny."

"You got it." Kenny pointed, before heading back over to his family.

Lee headed over to Carley, who was poking around in a few boxes, "How are you doing, Carley?"

"I'm ok. You know, considering."

"I do, yeah."

"I can't stop thinking about Doug. We couldn't have saved him, could we?"

"I don't think so. It happened pretty fast."

"I know it's stupid…we'd just met… and he was such a… it's just that… I think that I liked him." Carly admitted.

"I'm sorry, Car." Lee said, sympathetically. He knew deep down that she and Doug liked each other and now… Doug will never know.

"It's ok. Thanks though. There's been a lot of death in the past few days. Anyway, I'd rather be alone I think."

Lee nodded, "I understand." He turned to walk away, when Carley interrupted him.

"Wait, Lee?"

"What is it?"

"How did you choose? We both needed you… you picked me."

Lee paused a bit before answering and giving her a small, unnoticeable shrug. "I didn't."

"Ah." Carley responded.

"Sometimes we don't make choices. We just do what we do." Lee said.

"I just wish we both could've made it, you know?" She admitted.

"Me too, Carley."

She resumed rummaging through the boxes, and Lee walked away. He walked towards Clementine and Duck, noticing that Larry was glaring at him from the back wall. Duck was in the middle of telling a story about 'Super Dinosaur and monsters to Clementine, much to her dismay. Lee cleared his throat, cutting in, "Hey Duck, you want to cool it for a minute?"

"Ok, sorry."

Lee looked down at Clementine, who was silently leaning against the vehicle. He got to her eye-level, "I'm sorry, there's uh, not a lot of kids here."

"No, it's not that. It's… I got grabbed again."

"I was there though."

"I fell… and my walkie-talkie broke. Glenn had the other one."

"Aww, I'm sorry." Lee said, sympathetically.

"Thanks. I know I need to be though. I'm just sad." Clementine said, before sobbing "I know it doesn't make any sense…but it's how I used to talk to my mom and dad…and now they're gone. It's gone."

"Maybe we can find you another one."

"I'll just keep this one, I guess." Clementine quietly concluded.

Another voice spoke, "Lee, come here for a second." The voice belonged to Larry.

"Let me go deal with this." Lee told Clementine. As Lee got to his knees, Duck resumed his 'fascinating' story.

"Oh man, Cementine! Another thing...!" he began.

Lee walked over to Larry, asking with a serious tone, "What do you want?"

"You like my daughter?"

Lee looked over to Lily briefly, despite the fact that she was a witch deep down Lee could see that she was a good person, she was still a jerk though. "She's fine."

"Fine? Well just screw you Lee Everett." Larry snarled. Lee frowned. "That's right I know how you are and I know you a killer and so will everybody else if you go near her."

Lee and Larry glared at each other.

"I know who you are. And I don't give a crud about what happens to you. But if anything happens to my daughter or that little girl you've got with you, heh, you watch your back." Larry snapped, before rudely brushing past Lee.

Suddenly, Lilly spoke up, "Hey, Lee; do you have a second?"

Lee glanced over his shoulder at Larry who was glowering at him. He grimaced nervous and nodded. Lilly continued speaking nevertheless, "My dad would be dead if it weren't for you."

Lee looked down, a guilty look appeared on his face, "That guy, Doug, is dead because of me."

"You can't be like that. You're only one man."

"I don't know…"

"We're lucky to have you."

Lee looked up and smiled, before there were sudden loud booms in the distance. They reminded Lee of the sound fireworks made. But in this world now, that was impossible. Lilly and Lee nervously glanced up. Kenny broke the silence, "I hope that's the sound of us winning this thing."

"Me too." Lily agreed.

"This motor inn's pretty darn defendable. We block off the entrances with some cars and keep someone on watch and we could stay here until the military rolls through."

The three of them began walking towards the road, Lilly agreed, |I actually agree with that plan."

"Me too." Lee supported.

Kenny continued, "We've got beds, we've got water and most importantly, we've got light. There are worse places to call home."

Lilly approved, "Yeah. You're right. You know guys, I think it's going to be ok."

As if on cue, the motor inn was suddenly plunged into complete darkness as the area's electricity began to shut off one by one. "LEE!" Clementine cried, dashing towards him.

Pretty soon after that was the moment where the former history professor screamed. "Oh COME ON!"


End file.
